Don’t be a spoilsport, Syed Saddiq

By admin-s Last updated Oct 24, 2024

Nehru Sathiamoorthy

Personally, I feel that Syed Saddiq’s wild premonition that the removal of petrol, education, and healthcare subsidies for the top 15 percent of the country’s population will trigger a class war is at best a shoddy attempt at hair splitting and at worst, a sign that the Muar MP is suffering from hysteria.

It is a case of hair splitting if the crux of Syed Saddiq’s wildly exaggerated claim lies in the definition of top 15 households. According to Syed Saddiq, “In Malaysia, the top 15 of households earn about RM12,000 and therefore if subsidies are removed from the top 15 households in the country, these households,” with an average household of 3.8 people, with two working members earning a combined RM12,000 would be denied crucial subsidies.”

Using this basis that the top 15 Malaysian households are those who have a combined household income of RM 12,000, Syed Saddiq then conveniently broadened the scope of T15 to include all or a large section of the middle class, before wildly imagining that the removal of the subsidy to “all of the middle class” will result in perhaps all or most of the middle class in the country, who number around 12 million, to face such a significant fall in status and drop in lifestyle, that it will cause a class war to erupt between the middle class and the working class, as the resentful middle class finds itself paying more for what the working class gets at a lesser price, although their circumstances in life is not much different from that of the working class.

Now, I might not be exactly familiar with how the top 15 percent of households in the country to be defined as households with a combined income of more than RM 12,000, but I am more than sure that when Anwar used the term when he unveiled the budget last week, he was referring to a group of people whose circumstances in life is so dissimilar to that of the working class that the mere removal of such humble items like petrol and diesel subsidies will not throw them into the throes of poverty and destitution.

The top 15 percent of any group is the elites of that group. For comparison, in a classroom of 30, the top 15 percent represents the top 5 students in that class. In terms of grades, being in the top 15 percentile means you are in the grade A category. In terms of lay meaning, the top 15 percentile is what is referred to as the cream of the cream. If you graduate in the top 15 percentile of your class, you typically will have a 3.7–3.8 GPA or and you will graduate with the distinction of “Magna cum laude”, which means “With great distinction.”

What kind of cream of the cream of Magna cum laude are you if you still insist that unless you receive remedial action, you will have to agitate to the point of starting a class war so that your needs will be paid attention to? If you belong in the bottom 15 percent and you say that, maybe it will make sense, because when you are at the bottom 15 percent, you are just a step away from being left behind by the group; but what kind of elite are you, if you think that without remedial action, you cannot survive or thrive?

By right, if you belong in the top 15 percent household of a country, you should not be interested in engaging in a class war with the working class over things like the humble petrol and rice subsidy, any more than a top grade fighter jet will be interested in engaging with a soldier who is shooting at it with an assault rifle. That, by the way, should be an accurate analogy to represent the difference between the life of a working-class household, who wouldn’t mind queuing up for hours to buy 1 ringgit rice, and a member of a T15 household, who does not even look at the price on the menu before they place an order.

During the unveiling of the budget, Anwar already mentioned that when he refers to the T15, he is referring to the “Mahakaya” group. Is it not obvious for someone like Syed Saddiq that Mahakaya does not refer to people who are in the middle income bracket who will find their lives upended if they have to pay a few ringgit more for a litre of petrol?

An intelligent person should understand what an average person understands and also understand more than what an average person understands. When you cannot even understand what an average person understands, it becomes difficult to see you as an intelligent person.

You can communicate with someone who truly doesn’t know, but how do you communicate with someone who pretends to not know? What is the point anyway? It is possible for the blind to see, but is it not possible for those who do not wish to see to not be blind.

As a politician, Syed Saddiq might have 101 political problems with Anwar or PH, but whatever your problem is, don’t conflate it to become the problem of the working class. Your problems can be resolved with minimum affect to your life and lifestyle, if you just quit your job. The working class has waited for generations for someone to address our problem before Anwar took the helm, and we might have to wait for generations if Anwar is delayed or frustrated, because some garden variety politician wishes to frustrate Anwar’s initiative, for some personal or petty reason.

Every reasonable person should understand from what Anwar said when he unveiled the 2025 Budget, that he intends to shift the resources of the country from being elite-centric to working class-centric. What we expect from our politicians, including opposition politicians like Syed Saddiq, is to provide meaningful input that will materialise the shift of resources, not nitpick and split hairs over trivial matters to the point that the redistribution initiative is delayed, stalled or abandoned.

No matter how intelligently you think you are in framing the argument, at the end of the day, how you will be seen will depend on your intentions and aim. Do you really want to be seen as someone who is being petty and trivial in a matter of great importance to the working class or as a useful tool to the “Mahakaya”?

In this day and age, nobody is so foolish as to not understand that the one who cried thief is likely the thief in question or that the hand that rocks the cradle is the same hand that pinched the baby in the first place. Just because you are saying that you wish to prevent a class war, it doesn’t mean that everybody will see you as genuine in your desires to prevent a class war. Depending on your action, we can also see you as wanting to start a class war, despite saying otherwise.

Anyway, if Syed Saddiq is really interested in preventing a class war, rather than immerse himself in pedantic disputes over petty definitions, and take up the cause of the top 15 percent of the country who should be more than capable of taking care of themselves even without his involvement, maybe Syed Saddiq should look into the matter that truly reflect the middle class and the working class, who make up 80 percent of the country.

It is not as if there is any dearth of issues affecting the middle and the working class.

Take the issue of foreign workers in our country for example. These foreign workers are self-evidently depressing wages and competing with opportunities, space and resources with local workers.

It is common knowledge these foreign workers are being exploited by unscrupulous businesses and corporations in the country, who are using these foreign workers in an almost slave-like manner to create wealth for themselves from the blood, sweat and tears of these very unfortunate people.

To justify their exploitation, these businesses and corporations are even resorting to calling local workers as “lazy, spoilt and choosy”, so that they can continue to be granted access to an ever growing number of exploited foreign labour.

These exploitative businesses and corporations are not only negatively affecting the lives of our working class and the lives of the foreign workers, their exploitative demands are also affecting the lives of middle class Malaysians, to the point that Malaysia is currently ranked the second worst country in the world in terms of work life balance.

If you want to prevent a class war, Syed Saddiq, why not take up this cause, that not only affects over 80 percent of Malaysians, but also more millions of foreign workers that come from half a dozen poor countries around the world.

If you can’t help, then at least don’t be a dog in the manger, and get in the way of other people like Anwar from helping them.