YOURSAY | PM, batik will not heal our racial woes

YOURSAY | ‘Promoting BM and batik will not put food on the table.’

PM declares Dec 3 Malaysia Batik Day

Vijay47: Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, I presume that this colourful batik proposal must be a refreshing idea from one of your brilliant advisors you are paying a king’s and queen’s ransom to each month.

I can just imagine the scene - we deck ourselves out in batik and hey presto, we are all filled with this irresistible patriotic spirit even as we savour the richness of being part of Keluarga Malaysia!

I have another idea to instil this sentiment of nationalistic fervour in keeping with our newfound kinship. On a given date each year, maybe on former minister S Samy Vellu’s birthday, all of us, including Tamil and Chinese schools, could celebrate Sari Day, where women wear a sari and the men a kurta.

And to complete the unity picture, we can have a day when everybody hoists a Chinese lantern in their front yard. This could be on Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong’s birthday.

No, please, don’t pay me advisory fees of RM50,000.

Going through the numerous comments already posted in this comment section, I have computed that 96.7 percent are against Federal Territories Minister Shahidan Kassim's impromptu holiday (in conjunction with Kuala Lumpur City FC’s Malaysia Cup win) and the prime minister's batik decisions.

Yet I must stress that we Malaysians are not against batik or sudden holidays per se as long as the reason befits the occasion.

Just imagine, we would have been chanting for a week-long dressed-in-batik holiday if Rosmah Mansor had been arrested for failing to attend court on Thursday.

But the beating heart still hopes.

RedShark6167: Ismail Sabri, how will the Batik Malaysia Day help the poor and marginalised? Will wearing batik tomorrow bring them food and jobs for the whole year?

You have three well-paid advisors costing RM150,000 in total per month of taxpayers’ money. Maybe you will need another advisor to come up with more ideas of what the 365 days next year should be declared as, for example, Turtle Egg Day, Digital Mall Shopping Day etc.

The rakyat does not expect you to be smarter than the eighth PM, but please be more rational. Prices of goods rising, many still jobless, economy falling behind and do expect another wave of Covid-19 coming thanks to the Omicron variant.

If you have many colourful batik outfits, you can wear them every day to show off, but don’t forget the rakyat need your smart leadership to help alleviate poverty and unemployment, and to bring fairness and prosperity for all in the real spirit of Keluarga Malaysia.

OCT: There hasn't been a constructive idea coming from Ismail Sabri so far. What the PM is addressing is not about the woes Malaysia is facing. Promoting BM and batik will not put food on the table.

The PM doesn't feel the suffering of the rakyat. He is aloof to the poor plight of the rakyat. He only cares how to get more votes by saying things that will please race and religion.

The high prices of necessities are currently the talk of the town. Cost of necessities are rising and yet the rakyat haven't seen any concrete remedies from the government to bring the prices to an acceptable level.

Anon2000: “Batik Day is in line with the Keluarga Malaysia concept whereby all races unite,” PM said.

As long as bumiputera special privileges continue to exist, there is no such thing as ‘Keluarga Malaysia’. Just look at the last budget. Peanuts were allocated for non-Muslims.

‘Keluarga Malaysia’ is just another slogan devised by Umno to fool the ill-informed.

Newday: PM, sloganeering and the type of clothing worn for a day will not heal our woes.

Pray tell PM, where to actually buy truly authentic Malaysian batik anyway? It’s hard to find unless in Terengganu or Kelantan. Even then, many of them come from over the Thai border or Indonesia and marketed as local.

Distribute your budget allocations in a fair multicultural manner and stop the cancer of Salafi Islam permeating all our lives and the Malaysian family can live with some hope.

Uragt: The disunity is among the MPs of Umno, PAS and Perikatan Nasional (PN), not the people.

No amount of batik can hide the corruption and self-interest (greed) among their politicians, including luring frogs with bribes and RM100 million bonuses upon retirement.

Anonymous_15897: People have no food, no jobs and are dying from disease. The economy is tanking, price of food is going up and society is torn by racism.

Suicide rate is also going up along with political instability. There’s endemic corruption and environmental rape on a massive scale.

The country as a whole is in the doldrums. Meanwhile, for Ismail Sabri it’s Batik Day!

Neutral Point: Indeed, people are suffering from the Covid-19 pandemic and trying to make ends meet. To feed their family, to settle their debts and you still have time to talk about Batik Day?

What actually goes on in your mind? Do you know how to run the country?

Fair Play: Wow, who really knows? Batik might become Malaysia’s largest export, beating palm oil as the second-largest producer (after Indonesia) in the world.

Headhunter: Is Sarong Day next? With the price of vegetables hitting the roof it would be more productive if he had declared a "Plant your own kangkong" day.

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