Why the working class must stand behind Rafizi and PADU
PADU will fail if the working class, who are the main beneficiaries of the system, believes the doubts and suspicions that the upper classes are sowing about it.
Nehru Sathiamoorthy
A lot of people don’t understand what PADU is about, so let me explain it simply. In the second half of 2024, everybody will be paying a different price for RON 95. Whether they will be paying more or less, will depend on their record in the PADU database.
If you registered as “poor” in the PADU database, you might be paying less than RM 2.05 per litre of RON95 after June this year.
If you are registered as “rich” on the other hand, you might be paying more.
Pakatan has never clearly stated its economic goals, but I will go on a limb to say that the Pakatan government believes that our economic structure is tilted in favour of the rich and against the poor.
To re- balance our economic structure, Pakatan is likely going to tax the rich and aid the poor.
This is where the PADU database comes in. Once the Madani government knows who is rich and who is poor through the PADU database, it will use the information to distribute aid to the poor and maybe even tax the rich.
When you take from Peter to give to Paul, Paul will vote for you but Peter will think you are a robber. Paul will pray for your health and hope you to reign for a thousand years but Peter will be finding your flaws and harping on it to trigger your downfall.
If you are rich, you are not likely going to want the PADU system to work. You don’t have anything to gain from it, and you are apt to find yourself suffering from a loss because of it.
Of course, if you are rich, you are not going to say that you want the PADU system to fail because it is against your self-interest.
Instead, you are going to come up with all sorts of excuses, like the PADU system is vulnerable to hackers or is a security risk in order to suspend its deployment.
If you want to know who the spokesperson and cyber troopers for the rich are, it is those who have been undermining the PADU system from the very day that it has been launched.
I am not a fan of Rafizi. As a matter of fact, I have called for his resignation multiple times. I took his “don’t eat chicken if you if you can’t afford it” or “don’t eat out if it is too expensive” statements so personally, that whenever I look at his name and face, I can’t help but frown and scowl.
Outside of personal annoyance, my biggest problem with Rafizi is that I see him as an intellectual more than as a man of action.
An intellectual delights in ideas and concepts. If you tell him your problem, he will break it down and analyse and explain it, but he won’t act on it.
I wanted Rafizi to resign because a minister is an executive, not an intellectual. When people tell a minister a problem, we want him to take action and solve the problem, not break down or provide an explanation for the problem.
PADU is the first time I am seeing Rafizi take action. Sure, some people might say that Rafizi also spearheaded the food vending machine program via the People’s Income Initiative (IPR), but for me, that program was too small to be considered an initiative that is worthy of someone who is in the position of a minister.
Despite having nothing good to say about Rafizi so far, I hope this time, he succeeds. If he succeeds in deploying PADU, I will change my mind about him. Heck, I might see him as prime ministerial material.
Previously, when Rafizi wanted to be a podcaster to burn his critics, I criticised him for not focusing on his job as the economic minister. I thought he was getting too distracted by side issues and engaging in petty quarrels that are not befitting someone who is in the position of a minister.
This time however, when Rafizi is firing back at the detractors of the PADU system, I fully support him and hope that he does succeed in taming all those who wish to delay or suspend the PADU system.
Let us be clear. No matter how cleverly the detractors of the PADU system mask their intentions with well-meaning words and expressions, no matter how much they say they are against the PADU system for the people’s sake, regardless of how they make it sound like they are only criticising and sowing suspicions about the PADU system because they want to help to become better, what they are actually trying to do is make the PADU system fail, because if it succeeds, it will be against their self-interest.
PADU will fail if the working class, who are the main beneficiaries of the system, believes the doubts and suspicions that the upper classes are sowing about it.
PADU will only fail if the working class, who are the main beneficiaries of the system, believes the doubts and suspicions that the upper classes are propagating about it, and not support its deployment.
The targeted subsidy for RON95, which might even see the working class paying less than the RM 2.05 per liter that is paying now, is likely just the first benefit that the working class are going to be receiving via the PADU initiative. Once the PADU system is fully deployed, the price of other staple items, like rice, sugar, electricity, chicken and egg, might also be delivered to the working class at a lower rate. For all you know, maybe even the price of a house might become more affordable to the working class, once the PADU system is fully operational.
I have never spoken overtly in support of anything before. I have always written with the aim of enlarging the mind of the reader, not forward the will or desires of any particular group.
But this time I am going to forward the interest of a particular group, and that group is the working class.
I firmly believe that the working class must stand behind Rafizi and the unity government in their effort to deploy the PADU system. We must not believe whatever its naysayers say about it, regardless of how well they coat their words with sugar or articulate their arguments with good intentions. We must reinforce the strength and confidence of the unity government, with our expressions and intentions, to thwart any attempt to derail the success of PADU.
