The Malaysian Insight

MORE people are coming forward to ask for food aid as the Covid-19 pandemic leaves them little or no money due to loss of income resulting from the government’s lockdowns, said lawmakers.

Kepong and Segambut MPs Lim Lip Eng and Hannah Yeoh said they have been receiving many requests in their respective constituencies from B40 families for food aid, which worsened with the third lockdown starting on June 1.

Lim and Yeoh’s constituencies are in Kuala Lumpur. As of 2018, Kepong had 56,516 registered voters while Segambut had 77,956.

“I have been receiving requests for help since the first movement control order (MCO) in March last year but now I get non-stop requests every single day.

“They are from the B40 families and they are requesting for food. My service centre now looks like a grocery store, I have everything,” Lim told The Malaysian Insight.

He said those seeking help approach him on all available avenues.

“They come to my service centre, WhatsApp, call, send me messages on Facebook, Twitter and email and some come to me through their neighbours.”

Lim said he had to close half of his service centre to protect his staff from close contact with outsiders but people are still showing up and knocking on his door for help.

“(They come to me for help for) all kinds of reasons. Some lost their jobs or Covid-19 has affected their income and they couldn’t do their business or sell anything to make money,” he said.

Lim has been handing out food parcels with rice, noodles, instant noodles, canned food, biscuits and eggs to those who come to him to help them get by.

He said he has also been approached by headmasters of several schools in Kepong to help their students buy gadgets to help them with online learning from home.

“This month, I gave away four laptops and five tablets. This was not (requests) from the parents, but from school headmasters.

“The tablets are for primary school students and laptops for secondary school Form 4 and Form 5 students,” he said.

Lim has been helping the families and students out of his own pocket as he has pledged three months of his salary to help his constituents who are in need.

Though little of his funds remains, Lim said he will not turn to crowdfunding at the moment as everyone is going through hard times.

Similarly, Yeoh said she has been giving out food aid in the low-cost flats and village areas in her constituency in Segambut.

“I go according to areas and do mass distribution. We call up the representatives in the villages and flats then we send the food aid there,” she said.

Yeoh said that those who come to her for help include people who have lost their income and even the elderly.

“Most have had their income affected. The lockdown and Covid-19 mean senior citizens have trouble going out to buy, even if they have money.

“With kids not in schools, electricity increases and meal-times increase (hence they ask for help),” she said.

Yeoh has been getting her supply of food from civil society groups and also from wealthier constituents who can afford to donate food.

She added that she has also received requests for gadgets but does not have the funds to provide new equipment.

Instead, with the help of resident groups in the area, she is providing them with refurbished laptops.

Follow successful countries or reopen economy

Lim said Malaysia should follow the lead of countries who have successfully contained the Covid-19 pandemic and reopened their economy instead of “trying to be smart”.

“The Malaysian government shouldn’t try to be smart. We can learn from other countries.

“If they see other countries doing well, they can recover their economy during this pandemic, be it Singapore or Finland, just copy their strategy,” he said.

He added that Malaysia should not be shy in asking for help and instead “copy and paste” the strategies of these successful countries.

“If other countries have opened up because their cases are getting lower, why can’t we ask their opinion? Ask them to send over an expert.”

Meanwhile, Yeoh said the only way the government can help the B40 from sliding even further into poverty is by opening up the economy.

“They should also vaccinate all documented and undocumented foreign workers, I have a lot of them in my villages,” she said.

Yeoh said the government should also reopen Parliament so that its spending during the pandemic can be scrutinised.

Parliament has been suspended under the emergency, which was put in place from January 11 until August 1, as the government focussed is efforts in fighting the pandemic. MPs last sat in Parliament in December 2020.

On June 16, Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah, after a meeting with the Malay rulers, issued a statement calling for Parliament to convene and debate the Covid-19 response.

Since March last year, Malaysian have gone through various MCOs with two full lockdowns. In the first lockdown in March last year the government provided cash aid to the B40 group along with an automatic six-month loan moratorium.

In the current lockdown – which was expected to end on June 28 – the government announced the Pemerkasa Plus stimulus package, which came with RM2.1 billion cash aid for families earning RM5,00 or less.

B40 families who have lost their employment due to the lockdown were also given an automatic three-month loan moratorium or a 50% reduction in their loan repayments for six months, starting from June 2021.

Malaysia has so far announced six stimulus packages worth a total of RM340 billion.

Last week, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced the national recovery plan, which will see the country open up in phases when the number of daily infections fall, the percentage of the population vaccinated rises and the healthcare system is no longer in a critical situation. – June 28, 2021.