BR1M Fever

Oni wat 'perlu' ogik Bantuan Rakyat 1 Malaysia?

Sometime before Christmas last year, I was hanging out at the office pantry during lunch hour and the topic of BR1M brought up the following conversation. Take note that ‘BR1M’ has been commonly pronounced as ‘brim’ even though it’s obvious that there’s no letter ‘I’ in the acronym.

Evil Colleague: Hey, you guys filled up the BR1M form yet?

Naïve Colleague: No…my household income is already more than RM 3,000.00.

Evil Colleague: Hey, man it doesn’t matter la, free money ma…just fill in the form.

Naïve Colleague: Why? It wouldn’t matter coz I’m not even eligible la.

Evil Colleague: Alaa…don’t put your wife punya name in there. Just you and your kids.

Naïve Colleague: What? That’s cheating la.

Evil Colleague: So what? Look, you got 4 kids right? You take 2 as your tanggungan.

Naïve Colleague: Ok…

Evil Colleague: Then your wife fills in one more form for her and the other 2.

Naïve Colleague: I don’t know man…it’s kind of dishonest.

Evil Colleague: Aiyaaa...government already want to give out money, just take as much as you can la. When you think they’re going to give it to you again? Not everyday la. So whatever you can take, take la.

Naïve Colleague: I don’t know.

Evil Colleague: You see, my father applied and he got, but he put my name as one of his tanggungan. Now my own application rejected ma. So I have my wife to fill in the form on our behalf but my name not in it this time. But she put only our youngest child in it. My eldest son (already finished Form 6), I also ask to fill in the form. He works at KFC part time but in his form it’s as if his 2 siblings are his tanggungan ma…

Naïve Colleague: Waaa…that way ka? So desperate ka?

Evil Colleague: Mesti la! Harga barang sudah naik, everything naik, nanti after this New Year, for sure everything become more expensive you know. So if government give out free money, take la.

Naïve Colleague: Yalah. I guess you’re right.

From then onwards, the Naïve Colleague has been converted into the Evil Colleague’s cult. I’m cynically calling it a ‘cult’ coz almost everywhere I go these days; people are constantly talking about BR1M and how to get their hands on the money. The story always starts with:

“I heard that someone in (put the name of location here) got the RM500.00 by….”

Then you continue the sentence with any kind of unscrupulous plan you can think of.

Everyone’s got some sort of strategy to ensure that the RM 500.00 is theirs and many will not let the dust settle even when their first application was rejected. In more ways than one, they’ll scheme out some ridiculous plan that they hope would succeed. This scenario reminds me so much of Wile E. Coyote’s attempt to catch the Roadrunner.

Personally, I’m not a fan of this government initiative, no matter how much the mainstream media tries to propagate the message that this is a SINCERE aid dished out to ease the financial burden of the rakyat. Oh, please…there be very little that RM 500.00 could do anyway. A month’s household ration for would finish that in a blink of an eye.

We are always being bombarded with issues and propaganda relating to sustainability. But try and look into the BR1M aid, and ask yourself, “Is there anything sustainable about this aid?”

The answer is a plain and simple, “No”.

Once the rakyat is done with the RM 500.00…what happens? Nothing.

I’m not even going into the political aspect of this BR1M aid. Just the bare economics of it alone has so many flaws in it; I’m scared shitless (sorry for the foul language, but I can’t help it this time) that our country is draining its financial resources for something that’s not worth while.

Is this going to make the poor less poor? Is this going to ensure that we will be able to provide for our children and/or our elders in the next 20 to 30 years? Is this going to give long term prosperity for Malaysians from all walks of life as a whole? The answer to all of that is the same. No. But it’s been done and what’s done is done.

You want a dose of irony? Here one that’ll slap so many people in the face.

“We (MP and Residents in Sarawak) recently discussed with officials from the MoF (Ministry of Finance) how best to hand out the assistance. We’ve been given two months, Jan 15 to Mar 15, to distribute the payment vouchers to eligible applicants. So, plan properly, remember if we can’t handle it nicely, we defeat the noble purpose to help the rakyat,” said Datuk Alexander Nanta Linggi in an article in the Borneo Post.

The rest of the actual article can be read from the following link: http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/01/22/effort-to-find-practical-way-to-distribute-rm500-assistance-to-rural-folk/#ixzz1kznieVVA

Now, why is logistics such an issue? Coz we have no proper road network. Now, isn’t it more sustainable if the government had used money to build more roads? Than using money to fund the BR1M aid and then find use more money to find a way to get these monies to the rakyat? Adoi.

Comments, anyone?