YOURSAY | “We are not a rich nation, and there are thousands of us living below the poverty line.”
PM announces additional RM100m aid for Gaza
PurpleJaguar0553: PMX (Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim) wants to help the Palestinians. A noble gesture. But does he know that in our healthcare and education systems, the poor immigrants do not get access to healthcare or education? That if they can’t pay, they should just suffer, and if death or worse paralysis is the result, that’s their fate?
Even poor locals can’t get access to the latest medicines because of the lack of funding. Poor immigrant children have no access to education, and the cycle of poverty, deprivation and risk of oppression and discrimination continues to affect future generations.
These immigrants are mostly from Southeast Asia or South Asia. Why is it that PMX holds out charitable funds for people thousands of miles away but forgets the ones pleading for help at our doorstep?
Is this the humanitarianism that is practised by PMX? Day by day, I am losing hope in this Harapan government that can’t seem to get its priorities right or can’t seem to do the right and moral thing.
It’s a government that is surely becoming morally bankrupt. It is solely concerned with its misplaced priority of populism rather than with doing what is right.
It’s not that there’s no money to help Malaysians, but there’s money to help people of other countries. This is a small fraction of our budget.
It’s normal for countries to allocate a budget for international aid.
It’s not either or. If all it takes to solve our healthcare issue is RM100 million, we would’ve done it a long time ago.
Like when we say we need to increase our healthcare budget from two to three percent of our gross domestic product (GDP) to five percent of our GDP, we’re talking about an increment worth billions and billions, not RM100 million.
RM100 million is 0.025 percent of total spending.
I guess you argue that you should spend a single dollar helping other countries until you resolve issues at home. But I don’t know any country in the world that operates like that.
If we care about the country’s healthcare, we should ask how the government can raise billions of ringgit in funds.
Not which peanuts can we save here and there. In the end, you will just be cutting money that could make a big difference for the needy, but the savings would make no difference to us.
Apanama is back: Malaysian taxpayers are not only generous and hapless nationally but also internationally.
Their money can be squandered, much like someone’s grandfather’s, while taxpayers must cope with the high cost of living to support their families.
Only under Madani’s administration will taxpayers’ money continue to be wasted, solely to boost his ego and so-called international standing.
This is not the end. As the conflict is expected to last, an additional RM100 million will be announced, with funding continuing until the conflict ends.
BobbyO: Let us not get excited, as we know Anwar is a great orator, actor and a promiser of the moon and stars.
He managed to hoodwink Malaysians and Pakatan Harapan partners with all his great promises. That is to repeal the aggressive laws, to make the necessary changes and put this nation on track to be successful.
With his acting skills and great showmanship, many were magnetised by his dialogue.
Now it is the Malays’ turn to be magnetised. With his dramatic speeches and real-life action drama poses, he needs to win their support.
How much of that so-called donation will actually end up taking care of those really in need?
The answer to this problem is simple. Hamas withdraws, releases the hostages and then the rebuilding of Gaza can start.
The Arab nations are actually waiting for such a scenario to happen. So that they can, with Israel, rebuild Gaza and give a better life to those who reside in the territory.
Financing Hamas is actually supporting Hamas to continue fighting a war that they can never win. The end result is more deaths and misery for the innocent victims.
So let us not get excited. Anwar is not in charge of Gaza or what is happening around there. The Arab nations that are Gaza’s neighbours also want to see an end to this conflict.
So you can be assured that there will be moves made to end this war as quickly as possible.
Robbie98: No one wants to witness the depravity, the cruelty, that is being inflicted on the people of Gaza. No one wants to see a country’s wanton destruction.
No one wants to witness people fighting for food. Starving children are painful to see; it eats into your soul, if you have one.
What Anwar is trying to do is a noble thing, but yes, when taxpayers’ money is being donated, not collected as private donations, one can’t help but wonder where the money is going.
There is no structured organisation in Gaza. Hamas is essentially like the PLO of Yasser Arafat, a self-serving entity that uses the funds for their leaders’ benefit. Then, to buy weapons, and lastly, a few handouts to people of Gaza.
They rule their people with brutal force and fear of harm. So, who are we going to pass the RM100 million to? Will it ever reach the people?
I see numerous NGOs in the forefront, ready to take up the cause of the Palestinians. If you are channelling the funds through them, I can’t but recall the words of the Palestine authority representative in KL.
When asked about the last round of donations, he replied that he does not know about any funds being given to them.
So, once again, who is overseeing these fund distributions? Will there be any accountability? Politicians, as a rule, exist to promote themselves; that is a universal rule, with few exceptions.
Shi: I sympathise with the Palestinian people, and what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank is totally unacceptable. However, I am of the opinion that our current government is overdoing and involving itself in this matter.
We are not a rich nation, and there are thousands of us living below the poverty line. Many rural areas, especially East Malaysia, the west coast of the peninsula, lack basic infrastructure.
Many local folk earn a low income, and to some extent, are unemployed. It appears to me that the politicians are capitalising on this issue to gain their political advantage at the expense of the taxpayers. It has to be stopped.
YellowCondor6925: Please check the balance in our account before releasing the next batch. We know now you have two countries to care for.
Our cost of living in Malaysia is high, and not everybody is rich here. Malaysia is just a developing country, and we need money to develop the country and its people.
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