LETTER | Bringing out the best in us

LETTER | There are 2. 8 million households in the B40 category comprising approximately 13 million people. These are families with a median income of RM3,000 per month or less.

Many of these families were subsisting on one meal a day before the Covid-19 pandemic. Many were already receiving government subsidies.

There are more than four million foreign workers in the country - documented and undocumented. There are more than a million refugees and there are thousands of stateless people. There are about 240 thousand Orang Asli, all of whom are poor and live from day to day.

The lockdown as a result of the movement control order (MCO) prevents these people from working and from looking for food.

They are now totally dependent on financial and food assistance.

There are many old folks’ homes, orphanages and other homes for the infirm and the handicapped.

All are dependent on charity and the work of volunteers.

We are in the third week of the MCO, and we do not know what the government has done to ensure that all these people are fed. Has the money promised to them been given to them? Have food parcels been delivered to them?

Importance of charities, NGOs and service organisations

We know of the great work being done by charitable organisations, service organisations and other activists to distribute money and food to the poorest of the poor. We know that some opposition politicians have set up centres and are delivering money and food to the very poor. Mosques, temples and churches are doing the best they can.

The scale of the problem, with the large number of people involved, takes this problem beyond the reach of charitable organisations. They simply do not have the resources. Many generous people are contributing, but the amounts collected will not be enough to meet the need. Donors cannot travel freely in search of homes where food is needed and must rely on existing organisations with knowledge of where the need may lie.

The government has announced the Prihatin economic stimulus package. It is not clear what has been done following the announcement.

The action to contain the spread of the virus and to ensure that hospitals are supplied with drugs, medicines, test kits, ventilators and protective equipment has been good. Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah comes across as a highly competent individual. He is to Malaysia what Anthony Fauci is to the Americans. We are glad to have him. He reassures us that what needs to be done is being done. We appear to be doing well on that front.

We know that businesses – big and otherwise – are in discussions with the government as to what they require to keep their businesses afloat and their employees employed.

The longer the MCO, the more acute their needs. The economic fallout globally and domestically will take much longer to resolve. Not all businesses can be saved. Banks have the resources to measure viability and should, therefore, play their part.

The poor

The plight of the poor is acute.

There are many stories of families without food for days and starving. These families live in small and congested dwellings, have little or no savings and cannot store food supplies. Without the ability to work and leave their homes they simply wait for assistance. They include many children. Many of them breach the MCO rules looking for food for their families.

This is not a phenomenon we are accustomed to.

This image contrasts sharply with images of crowds queuing in supermarkets filling their trolleys with food. In middle-class sections of towns and cities, the constant drone of Grab Motorcycles delivering food is the only sound you hear all the time.

The middle-class occupy a different world from the poor. Most of us do not know how poor people live and feed themselves. Most of us do not know of families who subsisted on one meal a day in pre-crisis days.

For many years government statistics indicated only a one percent poverty rate. Many NGOs tried for years for the government to recognise the true scale of urban poverty. It took a United Nations expert on extreme poverty and his team to dispel the comfortable illusion we had of our low poverty rate of one percent and to compel us to acknowledge the possibility that it was closer to 15 percent.

Bring out the best in ourselves.

This crisis should bring out the best in us. We should be compassionate and empathetic. We should place self-interest and political ambition in the backburner and harness all our energy to help the poor.

There is a story of some politicians plastering food packages with their phonographs. That is shocking and shameful. This is hardly the time to campaign for elections. And there are stories of government-linked companies board members being sacked and replaced as members of the ruling parties seek their reward.

We should rise beyond politics at this time. We should transcend race and religious differences. There is a letter allegedly written by PAS president Hadi Awang, and he has not denied authorship of that letter. It is widely circulated. It was shocking in its display of hostility to non-Muslim Malaysians and would unless rejected raise questions about the government’s attitude towards non-Muslim Malaysians.

Should this not be a time for all Malaysians to come together? This pandemic is of global dimensions. Should we not be joining hands with all the people of the world to deal with a problem affecting all of humanity? Perhaps that is the good that can come from this deadly scourge.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin described himself as a prime minister for all Malaysians whilst acknowledging that his government was not the government people elected. We hope that he distances himself from the sentiments expressed by that letter and the person who wrote it.

This is not the time for the politics of hate and division. This is the time to love and help your neighbours whatever their race, religion or social class.

Government of the people for all of the people?

There are concerns about government priorities and policies. There are concerns about whether enough food and financial assistance will reach the people who need it most. The poor come from all communities. Delay in getting food to them only means that people will starve.

For political reasons, the government prorogued Parliament until the middle of May. They feared a motion of no confidence. There is a need for the government’s action plan to be placed before Parliament and debated by all members of Parliament. This is to ensure that it is the best plan possible and ensure adherence to constitutional requirements and processes. After all, we are a democracy.

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has given the assurance that he will not move a motion of no confidence in the debate over the government’s plan for dealing with the coronavirus and the economic stimulus package. In the meantime, leaders of various opposition parties, leaders of Unions, heads of religious groups and civil society organisations and charities should also be consulted.

The crisis affects all Malaysians. The government should adopt an all hands-on deck approach. The crisis is going to haunt us for a long time.

DAVID DASS is a lawyer, a Malaysiakini subscriber and commentator.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

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