Anas, We Hear You
The Selangor State Legislative Assembly will be meeting for a week beginning this coming Tuesday and amongst many issues which will be raised are the economic concerns. Both Nik Nazmi and I will be addressing this issue at the assembly. Below is a response by Nik Nazmi to Anas Zubedy.
Anas, We Hear You
Anas Zubedy’s letter calling for a political truce last week resonated with many Malaysians.
It was incredibly moving when he wrote about how four of his employees, Saedah, Alicia, Samsuri and Sudesh are struggling just to get by. These are the people that the leaders of Malaysia should be helping. And you know what? They are- at least in Selangor and the other Pakatan Rakyat states. Since Pakatan Rakyat came to power in Selangor, we have implemented the Economy for the Rakyat Program to give the people a stake in Malaysia’s biggest economy. What would this mean for Anas’ employees if they live in Selangor?
If Saedah has an individual water meter, this would mean that she would get 20 m3 of free water each month. This might seem little to some, but for many ordinary Malaysians coping with rising costs of living, this provides some relief. If she has any kids going to a recognised institute of higher learning, her child will receive a university-admissions stipend.
For Alicia, she can sign her father up to the Mesra Usia Emas scheme. Currently, this entitles her father to be covered with life-takaful-regardless of what his ethnicity or religion is. We are looking at expanding this scheme to cover benefits for the father while he is still alive.
I agree that more needs to be done for them as well as Samsuri and Sudesh. I have seen hundreds of them in my constituency – many of them living not far from Samsuri’s neighbourhood. The solution lies in two approaches – promoting economic growth to make it easier for people such as Anas to do business and employ people; while providing a safety net to ensure that all Malaysians get a decent living no matter how bad things are.
