Archive for the ‘income disparity’ Category
All these wastage must stop…pronto.
Posted on: May 14, 2008
- In: children | economy | good governance | government spending | income disparity | injustice | justice | malaysian politics | politics | sosial
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On the ground people are struggling to live and keep alive…others are sick and have no money for treament…children not going to school or universities for lack of funds…some of the rakyat is sufferring and need attention…
All these wastages must stop…pronto.
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| Lim: Orkestra filharmonik satu pembaziran |
| Fauwaz Abdul Aziz | May 13, 08 9:08pm |
| RM130,000 sebulan? Itulah gaji bulanan yang dibayar kepada konduktor Orkestra filharmonik Malaysia (MP0).
Dan menurut ketua menteri Pulau Pinang, Lim Guan Eng, langkah mengekal konduktor dan anggota MPO yang ramai rakyat asing, adalah satu pembaziran wang Petronas.
Lim mendedahkan bahawa kos membiayai anggota MPO itu mencecah RM3.5 juta sebulan. Menurutnya, 95 peratus pemuzik asing itu dibayar antara RM16,000 hingga RM28,000 sebulan dan mendapat dua bulan cuti bergaji setiap tahun. Konduktornya pula dibayar RM130,000 sebulan manakala penolongnya dibayar gaji RM50,000 sebulan. Sejak 10 tahun ia ditubuhkan, kata Lim, kos pembiayaan orkestra tersebut berjumlah RM500 juta. Lim juga mendakwa, bekas konduktor residen MPO, rakyat Malaysia – Ooi Chean See – telah meletakkan jawatan selepas tidak diberi peranan sewajarnya.
Katanya, pemuzik tempatan dipinggirkan manakala Petronas membelanja begitu banyak wang untuk melayan orang asing, terutama dari Eropah. Menurut Lim, sikap tersebut yang membuat rakyat begitu marah dengan Barisan Nasional (BN). Sebaliknya, Lim yang juga ahli parlimen Bagan, menggesa kerajaan supaya mengagihkan secara saksama perolehan dan keuntungan syarikat minyak nasional itu untuk faedah rakyat Malaysia, terutama yang miskin, bukannya mementingkan Pengeluar Kuasa Bebas (IPP). Sebagai contoh, katanya, ia termasuk bayaran bonus RM6,000 setiap tahun kepada setiap keluarga dan ia tidak akan menjejaskan keuntungan Petroasn yang mencecah hampir RM80 bilion. Mengenai pembelian jet pejuang Sukhoi dari Russia, Lim bertanya mengapa harga yang dipersetujui adalah AS$50 juta sebuah, sedangkan India membeli pesawat yang sama pada harga AS$40 juta sebuah. Sementara itu, menteri besar Selangor, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim (PKR-Bandar Tun Razak), dalam ucapannya, mempersoalkan unjuran bahawa 12 juta pekerjaan akan diwujudkan dalam tempoh lima tahun akan datang, ke arah mewujudkan 23 juta peluang pekerjaan pada 2013. Katanya, andaian hendaklah berdasarkan kepada angka-angka yang betul, kerana memandangkan keadaan ekonomi semasa dunia, angka tersebut mungkin terpaksa diubah. Beliau juga mempersoalkan ramalan bahawa RM30 bilion akan Mengenai keputusan kerajaan Selangor memberi bekalan 20 kubik meter air percuma, Khalid berkata, risiko pembaziran air diimbangi dengan sistem bil progresif di mana penggunakan air seterusnya akan lebih mahal. Berhubung dakwaan Ahmad Maslan (BN-Pontian) bahawa pemberian bekalan air percuma itu boleh dianggap sebagai ‘merasuah’ rakyat, Khalid mencadangkan ahli-ahli Umno Selangor yang tidak bersetuju dengan langkah tersebut, supaya jangan menerima bekalan air percuma dari kerajaan negeri. Dengan itu, katanya, bekalan tersebut boleh disalurkan kepada sekolah agama, sekolah Cina dan sekolah Tamil. |
Setiausaha agung DAP itu membangkitkan isu tersebut sewaktu membahaskan titah ucapan Yang di-Pertuan Agong di Dewan Rakyat hari ini.
Sehubungan itu, beliau bertanya, mengapakah Petronas membelanjakan wang yang banyak tetapi tidak memberi faedah kepada pemuzik tempatan.
dilaburkan dalam bidang hartanah, pelancongan dan sektor rekreasi memandangkan “bencana” yang menimpa Zon Bebas Pelabuhan Klang dan mempersoalkan faedah projek Iskandar Malaysia di Johor kepada negara.Fuziah Salleh, Srikandi Rakyat
Posted on: March 7, 2008
- In: economy | election | Fuziah Salleh | Human Development | Human Rights | income disparity | injustice | justice | Kuantan | malaysian politics | sosial
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Kebiasaannya, pada awal pagi selepas solat subuh, beliau akan memikirkan rancangan untuk rakyat pada hari itu. Bagi para petugas KeADILan Bahagian Kuantan, mereka akan menerima mesej-mesej dari beliau – sebahagiannya bertanyakan pendapat, sebahagaian lainnya dalam bentuk arahan. Dengan segala kesibukan yang dialami, Fuziah Salleh masih tetap menjawab sms dan panggilan dari para pengundi dan wartawan. Itulah kelebihan Fuziah Salleh – memang tidak syak beliau layak ke parlimen kerana tumpuan beliau jelas hanya untuk kepentingan dan kesejahteraan rakyat. Gambar-gambar di dalam blog beliau dan di blog ini sudah menjadi bukti untuk mengukuhkan pandangan tersebut.
Dalam melaksanakan kesedaran untuk melayan, mengambil berat kesusahan rakyat, beliau tanpa rasa penat dan jemu menemui mereka di mana saja mereka berada. Sebahagian mereka walaupun pertama kali bertemu beliau, seolah-olah seperti sudah lama kenal dan mudah untuk mengadu penderitaan mereka. Sebahagiannya tidak dapat menahan airmata mereka yang tiba-tiba menitis tanpa henti setelah berbual dengan beliau.
Fuziah Salleh ialah seorang insan yang boleh merasa empati dengan apa yang dianggung oleh rakyat jelata yang hidup mereka susah, perlu bantuan dan bimbingan dalam memperbaiki kehidupan mereka.
Tidak akan ada kesangsian bahawa jika beliau dipilih sebagai Ahli Parlimen esok, beliau akan menjadi seorang Ahli Parlimen contoh yang dapat dibanggakan oleh semua kaum, bukan saja oleh orang-orang Melayu, bahkan Cina, India, Kadazan, Iban dan semua yang lain.
Beliau mempunyai kewibaan hakiki dalam memperjuangkan hak-hak rakyat. Rakyat akan berasa selamat dengan idealismenya yang sedemikian. Beliau amat tegas dengan penyelewengan dan pengabaian hak-hak rakyat dan sentiasa mendesak pihak-pihak berwajib untuk memenuhinya segera dan tanpa sebarang kerenah. Ramai rakyat Kuantan yang telah mendapat pembelaan daripada beliau.
Beliau mudah bergaul dan responsive terhadap permintaan bantuan oleh rakyat Kuantan.
Beliau telah menemui dan berinteraksi dengan berbagai lapisan masyarakat berbilang kaum dan agama. Beliau juga seorang intellektual, teliti dalam segalanya tugasan yang diberi dan kehadirannya senantiasa dinanti-nantikan oleh mereka yang mengenalinya.
Ketokohannya terserlah semenjak bertanding pertama kali di Parlimen Kuantan – di kala itu calon BN ialah Khalil Yaakub, Menteri Besar Pahang. Kebijaksaan Fuziah dalam memberi pendapat dan menjawab omongan BN amatlah ketara bagi mereka yang pernah terlibat dengan perbincangan-perbincangan politik bersamanya. Anwar Ibrahim memperkenalkan beliau kepada dunia sebagai pakar politik akar umbi.
Satu lagi kelebihan beliau, iaitu sebagai seorang wanita, secara semula jadinya sikap prihatin, ambil berat, sensitif terhadap keperluan orang lain dan empati sudah sebati dalam jiwa raganya. Tambahan pula beliau adalah kaunselor terlatih yang telah mengendali begitu banyak kes dari peringkat kanak-kanak dan remaja kepada dewasa di dalam dan di luar negara.
Ilmu, kemahiran, sikap dan perasaan yang beliau miliki adalah lebih dari cukup untuk melayakkan beliau sebagai mewakili rakyat Kuantan, sebagai Ahli Parlimen mereka dalam Pilihanraya ke-12.
Jadikanlah FUZIAH SALLEH sebagai suara anda di Parlimen kali ini!
Harapan Malaysia Baru
Posted on: March 6, 2008
- In: Anwar Ibrahim | election | good governance | government spending | Human Development | Human Rights | income disparity | injustice | justice | malaysian politics | politics | safety | sosial | SPR | tranparency
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| Report card: Excellence, glory, distinction |
| Feb 26, 08 4:06pm |
| On the eve of the 2004 general election, the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition unveiled an impressive manifesto under the slogan of ‘Excellence, Glory, Distinction’. It contains a slew of breathtaking promises involving the economy, education and religion, among others.
Four years later, with another election in two weeks, how did the BN fare in fulfilling its promises? Here’s our verdict. Economy In order to face future economic challenges, BN will:
Four economic growth corridors were introduced during this period; Iskandar Development Region (IDR), Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER), Eastern Corridor Economic Region (ECER) and Sabah Development Corridor (SDC). IDR, created in July, 2006, is expected to lead the way in helping different regions in Malaysia. Being the first among the four to be mooted by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s government, IDR’s progress will be a good indicator for the other three’s success. However, IDR is currently is still in its infancy and it is still too early to gauge its success. Nevertheless, property developers such as Eastern & Oriental Bhd and UEM World continue to invest in this region. Growth was kept between 5.2 percent and 7.2 percent from 2004-2007, in line with Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. Compared with other developing countries Malaysia is on par with Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. Only China and India posted much higher figures, averaging 9.7 percent for the same period. However, while the GDP growth is maintained and even matches and surpasses other developing countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan, the GDP per capita continues to lag far behind them. Hong Kong’s (population: 7 million) GDP per capita income is estimated to hit US$30,448 while Singapore (population: 4.5 million) and South Korea (population: 49 million) are expected to reach US$34,461 and US$20,634 respectively. Malaysia’s GDP per capita income continues to trail 3-5 times below the above countries. In the latest Economic Report 2006-7, it is expected to touch US$7,098 if it achieves its target of 6-6.5 percent growth in 2008. Another issue affecting BN’s claims to economic success pertains to corruption. Although, corruption in itself is not included directly in economic considerations, a high level results in unnecessary wastage of funds and a drop in investor confidence. In an annual survey of expatriate business executives in 13 countries conducted by Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC), Malaysia came in seventh behind Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau and Taiwan. Malaysia scored 6.25 in a grading system with zero as the best possible score and 10 as the worst. Comments Money flows freely again after the economy almost grinded to a halt soon after Abdullah took power. Major question marks – will there be open tenders for government procurements and what will happen when we become a net oil importer in five years? Balanced development Ensuring balanced socioeconomic development is an ongoing effort. BN will:
Chief among the problems plaguing the current administration continues to be the income disparity between urban and rural inhabitants. According to a United Nations Human Development Report in 2004, Malaysia has the highest disparity between the rich and the poor in Southeast Asia. The report states that the richest 10 percent controls 38.4 percent of the economic income compared to the poorest 10 percent who control only 1.7 percent. As a result of this, Kuala Lumpur has seen increasing numbers of squatters and slums and an increase in petty crime such as snatch theft and robberies. BN also did poorly on the protection of the environment. Here are some examples: Currently there are several law suits in Sarawak where natives are suing timber giants for logging and having presence on native customary rights (NCR) land. Most natives have accused the state government to be in cahoots with the logging giants. The government officially scrapped the Broga mega-incinerator in 2007 after dogged protests mounted by residents against the incinerator. Since 2002, villagers from Broga have protested against the 1,500-tonne incinerator plant on grounds that it posed a serious threat to public health, the environment and their livelihood. The Save Bukit Gasing movement began after the land owner, Gasing Meridian Sdn Bhd, has applied to build 142 bungalows on the 15-hectare land in 2006. Bukit Gasing – considered the green lunch of Petaling Jaya – is highly susceptible to land erosion due to its soil composition and have gotten residents worried that development on the hill would cause landslides. The movement recently filed for a judicial review by the High Court to compel DBKL to hold a public hearing on the proposed development application on Feb 11, 2008 after the city hall denied residents access to their meeting with the developers. Comments While the government appears to make headway in the fight against poverty, it doesn’t look like it has the political will to bridge the income inequality gap. More so, when it ignores intra-ethnic disparities in its bid to strengthen the New Economic Policy. Education BN will advance our present education system as follows:
In Nov 2005, a government survey revealed that nearly 60,000 Malaysian graduates were unemployed because of their lack of experience and poor English and communication skills. The study by the country’s Economic Planning Unit in September said the typical unemployed graduate was female, from the majority ethnic Malay race and lower income groups. In July 3, 2006, Deputy Human Resources Minister Abdul Rahman Bakar revealed that some 70% of public universities and institutes of higher learning graduates in the country are unemployed. UiTM (Mara Technology University) showed as having the highest number with 3,278 unemployed graduates. This is in contrast with 26% for private institutions of higher learning and 34% for foreign graduates. At the same time, Human Resource Minister Fong Chan Onn disclosed that his ministry has spent a whopping RM82 million from RM100 million allocated to run a graduate retraining programme to sharpen the skills of unemployed graduates. Local universities continue to perform poorly according to influential Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) on world university rankings. Universiti Malaya (UM) plunged from its 89th place in 2004 to 192 in 2006. Last year it fell out of the top 200 rankings altogether. Meanwhile, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) rose by 105 places to break into the top 200 ranked universities for the first time, climbing from 289 last year to 185 in 2006. It did not make the top 200 cut a year later either. Comments Meritocracy in education is still a pipedream. Meanwhile, expect our top educational institutions to continue to slide downwards. Religion BN will:
Muslim-born Indian who was raised as a Hindu M Revathi was detained at the Malacca Syariah High Court in January last year when she attended a hearing over her application to have her official religious status be recognised as a Hindu. She was detained at the court and subsequently held at the Ulu Yam religious rehabilitation camp in Selangor for six months until she was freed in July 2007. Born Siti Fatimah Abdul Karim to Muslim convert parents, Revathi said was subjected to ‘mental torture’ and was forces to pray, eat beef and wear a headscarf. It is part of Hindu tradition to avoid the consumption of beef. Her story sparked a row on Muslim conversion drawing vociferous views from proponents of religious freedom and Islamic commentators. The issue of body snatching also raised religious tensions in December 2005 when Syariah Court ruled that Mount Everest hero M Moorthy was a Muslim on an application by the Federal Territory Islamic Religious Council despite his family’s insistence that the former army commander had died a practicing Hindu. In Nov 30, 2006, Selangor Islamic Council (Mais) and the Selangor Islamic Department (Jais) tried to claim Anthony Rayappan’s body from Hospital Kuala Lumpur morgue to bury him as a Muslim. Rayappan, who was born a Roman Catholic, but converted to Islam in 1990 when he took a Muslim woman as his second wife. However, he had renounced Islam in 1996 and went back to his first wife Lourdes Mary and their six children. After a legal battle, Mais released the body back to Lourdes. She has sued the religious authorities for general, aggravated and exemplary damages. There has also been demolition of Hindu temples which sparked activism by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf). According to the movement, 79 temples have been demolished nationwide since 2006. The height of these tensions reached its peak when the 100-year-old Sri Maha Mariaman temple located in Klang was demolished by Shah Alam City Council without a valid court order. The controversy over the use of the word ‘Allah’ began when the Catholic Church’s weekly organ Herald was facing problems in renewing its yearly publishing permit allegedly over the use of the word ‘Allah’ in its Bahasa Malaysia section. Although the Internal Security Ministry backed down and granted the weekly paper an unconditional permit, more disputes over religious materials soon surfaced. This included Customs Department officials confiscating English language Christian children’s books said to contain offensive caricatures of prophets and English bibles thought to be for commercial use. Sabah Sidang Injil Borneo Church president pastor Jerry Dusing has also filed a suit against Abdullah in his capacity as internal security minister over after six titles of children Christian literature from Indonesia containing the word ‘Allah’ for their Sunday school education were banned from being imported. On Jan 29 this year, a teacher in Perak has been reprimanded for forcing six Hindu schoolboys to shave their mustaches and beards, which they were growing for Thaipusam. The teacher also forced the students to remove religious wristbands to enforce a rule that no ornaments be worn in school. The teacher has since apologised. Comment Islam Hadhari has appeared to fail miserably. Tomorrow: Law and order, traffic accidents and public service |
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Disokong oleh Barisan Rakyat, parti-parti pembangkang
Endorsed by the the People’s Front, the Opposition parties:
People’s Declaration (English)
People’s Declaration (Chinese)
Deklarasi Rakyat
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Pembangkang suka negara tidak stabil
JOHOR BAHRU 27 Jan. _ Parti pembangkang didakwa suka melihat negara tidak stabil ekoran kerap berdemonstrasi untuk meraih sokongan pengundi ketika menjelang pilihan raya umum tidak lama lagi.
Presiden MCA, Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting berkata, tindakan parti pembangkang itu ternyata ditolak oleh rakyat yang sebaliknya, lebih menerima usaha kerajaan Barisan Nasional (BN) mengadakan kerjasama erat dengan setiap lapisan masyarakat di peringkat akar umbi.
“Taktik parti pembangkang sememangnya adalah untuk mengadakan demonstrasi demi demonstrasi kerana mereka suka melihat keadaan negara tidak stabil.
”Bagaimanapun, kerajaan BN sentiasa bekerja keras untuk memastikan sokongan daripada peringkat akar umbi masyarakat,” katanya.
Beliau berkata demikian ketika diminta mengulas mengenai demonstrasi membantah kenaikan harga minyak yang dianjur oleh parti pembangkang di Kuala Lumpur semalam.- Utusan
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| Fearless Indians fight for rights | ||||
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news analysis “Let’s see how makkal sakti (Tamil for ‘people power’) works now,” was Hindraf chairperson P Waythamoorthy’s reaction, just after he and two other key leaders were arrested 48 hours before the rally planned by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf). And on Sunday, the people – almost all from the Hindu community – responded impressively by taking part in the rally which attracted an estimated 30,000 from all over the country.
(left)are the prime movers behind Hindraf. Apart from often being the first to react with a grassroots presence whenever an incident involves the community, they have also held a successful nationwide roadshow to remind Indians of their rights. In the process, Hindraf has tapped the anger within the community, and it was shown by those who participated in the rally and the thousands of others who were prevented by the police from entering Kuala Lumpur. The real heroes, though, were the protesters.
with the way Indian Malaysians are being treated. They are fed-up with being downtrodden. They are frustrated with being treated as third-class citizens in their own country. So, they had no hesitation about accepting Hindraf’s invitation to come to Kuala Lumpur to express their anger despite the prior warnings issued by the polic and political leaders – and in defiance of a restraining order that could see them jailed for contempt of court. As many told Malaysiakini, the most recent demolition of a Hindu temple in Klang was the catalyst for their presence. ‘Hear our voice’ Many of the protesters were out-of-towners. They have been deprived of a forum and the opportunity to say their piece. Many are also MIC supporters, now with full regret that the only Indian-based party in the Barisan Nasional has been helpless in stopping temple demolitions. “This is the end. We have come here to protest against how the government treats us. They can beat us today. They can put us in prison. We don’t care. We want to tell the government that we are fed up,” said 52-year-old S Aiyakannu from Old Klang Road. His son Palani led a three-bus convoy from up north. “For us, it is like a life or death situation. If our voice is heard today, good. Otherwise, this frustrated community will have to show that we can’t be taken for a ride at all time,” he added.
his sentiments. Many have not seen Waythamoorthy or his brother Uthayakumar but have heard of their movement to mobilise the community fo the rally. “We have had enough of this bad treatment. They (government) can’t push us any lower. This is the limit. I am not here to support Hindraf’s suit against the UK government but I want to be here to show my anger,” said K Suresh from Sungai Petani. The majority of the crowd was well-behaved, showing expected grit in the face of the heavy police presence and eventual use of water cannon and tear gas. Every time they were sprayed with chemical-laced water and tear gas, they retreated only to come forward, in a bigger number. Many carried posters of Mahatma Gandhi to symbolise their pacifist stand, and carried none of the banners and posters usually associated with political rallies. The protesters gathered at about nine locations around Jalan Ampang and the KLCC . Every time they were stopped from marching forward, they would disperse and regroup at another spot. (See map below) regroup behind the police line, forcing the FRU trucks and street personnel to turn around or alter their positions. Ready for battle Eyewitnesses say that reports of protesters hurting the police are exaggerated. In most spots, it was the other way round with the protesters taking the brunt of tear gas and chemical-laced water.
disputes that police response had initially been retrained, the kid gloves came off the moment they started arresting the protesters for breaching the court order that banned the rally. Some were dragged along the road and hurled into waiting police trucks. Even as they were being arrested, many submitted without resistance or complain. One old man was heard saying that he was proud to be arrested over a cause for his community. Similar sentiments were heard when the protesters were hit with water and tear gas. “We are people who work hard to live. We don’t work in air-conditioned offices like the KL people. We work under the sun and rain. We are hardy. Let them hit us with anything. We will stand still,” said Raman, a bus driver from Batang Berjuntai, Selangor. Comical moments Although emotions sometimes ran high, there were some light-hearted moments at the expense of the police, which lifted the spirits of the protesters.
police fired rounds of tear gas at their own men, totally missing about 1,000 protesters standing in the vicinity. Seeing the men-in-blue running helter-skelter brought them joy, as much as seeing a Caucasian jogging in the middle of a stand-off between protesters and the police, oblivious to the tension around him! The police did their best to disperse the crowd. After realising that tear gas, water cannon and arrests were not doing the job, they started telling the protesters that Hindraf leaders had submitted the memorandum as planned to the British High Commission. They also said that Hindraf leaders had called for the protesters to disperse. The protesters however were not buying any of this, telling the police to just let them march to the high commission and disperse from there. “Never mind about the memorandum. Just let us walk peacefully right up to the high commission,” said a young man who was soon arrested for breaching the court order. By the end of the six-hour cat-and-mouse game, it was the police who grew tired. Towards the end, they only concentrated on protecting their cordon around the high commission. Wake-up call One thing is sure. This was not a political protest. This was a protest against the marginalisation of the Indian community. It was a case of the community hitting the streets because they have no where else to take entrenched problems.
The show of force must surely be a wake-up call, not just for the community but also for MIC and the government. Government leaders and the police can insist that the gathering was illegal but an overwhelming people power proved on Sunday that sentiments on the ground should not be neglected. The Hindraf rally was the second mass protest this month – after the Bersih rally on Nov 10 – and the third if we include the lawyers’ ‘Walk for Justice’ in Putrajaya last month. The protesters on all three occasions had no fear whatsoever in making their stand – and at each event, the police could not find a definitive tactic to put them off their purpose. If the momentum continues, the people power as envisaged by Waythamoorthy, could well lead to changes that are long overdue. |
Waythamoorthy (right) and his brother Uthayakumar
This was a crowd which is angry
Others shared
While no one
On one occasion,
- In: children | good governance | Human Development | income disparity | justice | Kuantan | malaysian politics | politics | sosial
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Adnan Yaakob sahkan Pahang masih ramai miskin
Berita Harian edisi Timur(16/11/ 2007) mendedahkan:
25,000 pelajar miskin dibantu
Oleh Rosli Abdul Jalil
Yayasan Pahang belanja RM2 juta bagi ringankan beban ibu bapa menjelang sesi persekolahan 2008
KUANTAN: Kerajaan negeri melalui Yayasan Pahang (YP) menyediakan peruntukan RM2 juta bagi menjayakan Program Bantuan Pakaian dan Beg Sekolah (PBPBS) untuk dinikmati oleh kira-kira 25,000 pelajar miskin di seluruh negeri.
Menurut berita itu lagi dari jumlah tersebut, seramai 1,337 orang pelajar miskin adalah dari Bentong, Jerantut (1,414 orang), Raub (1,256 pelajar), Pekan (1,923 pelajar), Temerloh (2,402 pelajar), Lipis (1,145 pelajar), Bera (1,105 pelajar), Maran (1,423 pelajar), Kuantan (5,291 pelajar), Cameron Highland (416 pelajar) dan Rompin (1,801 pelajar).
Inilah masalah politik pemimpin Umno. Mereka hanya nampak kuman di seberang. Kelantan sahaja yang menjadi kecaman dan ejekan – miskin. Mungkin sekiranya disemak seluruh negara, dirasakan banyak lagi negeri-negeri yang mengalami masalah yang sama dengan Pahang.
Apapun, kebajikan dan keselesaan para pelajar patut diutamakan. Bukan sahaja soal pakaian yang perlu diberikan akan tetapi biasiswa juga perlu difikirkan. Dalam soal ini rakyat rasa cukup tertipu dengan cara kerajaan mengumumkan penghapusan yuran sekolah dalam pembentangan bajet baru-baru ini. Kalau hanya penghapusan yuran itu hanya RM4.50 sen sahaja, maka tidak perlulah rasanya diumumkan di dalam parlimen. Memalukan sahaja….. Sedangkan pada hakikatnya, rakyat terpaksa menanggung beratus ringgit lagi perbelanjaan anak-anak sekolah mereka. Apatah lagi dalam suasana semua harga barang naik ini.
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This is Aini.
Aini suffered an illness unknown to her family until a Kuantan KeADILan Division Committee party member, Ram, brought her to the hospital and the doctor diagnosed the illness as cancer.
She is due to be operated on a week after Hari Raya. Her stomach has grown to a huge ball of about one foot in radius. All the time she can only lie on her side.
The illness began more than a year ago.
The fear of not being able to pay the medical bills shun her from pursuing a medical treatment and resort to bomohs and other kampung remedies. Such thinking is not uncommon among rural folks and the haves-not. Some of them go blind in old age, developed other incapacities and suffered illnesses without receiving proper medical treatment.
Let us pray in that her operation will be successful and Aini will once again lead a normal life.
Help may be contributed by sending a message to jfakuantan@yahoo.com
The face of Kuantan Poverty
Posted on: October 4, 2007
Shikin lives with her grandmother (77) and brother – both their parents have died.
Her brother left school to help support the family’s needs when their mother fell ill. He took her place as a dishwasher in a restaurant when her mother became too frail to work. And he is only 15.
Such scenarios are not uncommon among the poor in and around Kuantan. They think not about the future but the day to day survival of their lives. Often, they are on their own…
Cases of HIV-AIDS death and carriers occur, too in the domains of the poor.
We need everyone’s help to help us help them. Help may come in numerous forms – expertise, materials, time for visits, educating, health services, etc.
Please write to jfakuantan@yahoo.com for contributions.
- In: income disparity | Kuantan | sosial
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