Salleh: BR1M a boon, not a bribe
Salleh Said Keruak says critics may say as they wish but cash handouts have been proven around the world to considerably help the poor.
(Free Malaysia Today) – Despite facing an onslaught of criticism that BR1M is a form of bribery, the Barisan Nasional government has stuck with the cash handouts, simply because it has been proven around the world to considerably help free people from poverty, said Salleh Said Keruak.
The Sabah State Assembly Speaker was referring to the numerous countries that have adopted the same concept as BR1M and who have noted vast improvements in the level of poverty.
“And these programmes by whatever name they are called have been a boon to the people who received the aid,” Salleh said of Vietnam, Uganda, Brazil and Mexico.
He said Malaysia’s concept of BR1M was neither the first nor unique because so many others had started such programmes way before Malaysia did.
“Many other countries have been doing the same thing for the last decade or two and statistics show that it has been successful in assisting the less fortunate segment of the population in releasing them from the shackles of poverty.”
He cited a scheme in Latin America called “conditional cash transfers” and one in Africa known as “Give Directly in Kenya”.
He gave another example of one in Uganda that required a business plan for eligibility. “In Uganda, US$10,000 is given to groups of 20 people who then spend a third of the money to learn a trade and the balance on tools and livestock. They then set up joint enterprises and over four years their earnings increased by 50%.”
