The Malaysian Insight

IT will not be a popular decision among the 7.2 million recipients as Putrajaya slowly reduces the 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) payouts before weaning it out altogether, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Blaming the Najib administration for “spoiling” the people, Dr Mahathir said the people should stop depending on the government and believing that they are entitled to money without doing any work.

“Najib (former prime minister Najib Razak) has spoiled the people by making them think that without doing any work the government will give them money,” Dr Mahathir told The Malaysian Insight.

“Now we cannot give them the money because we are not stealing the money, but they still want the money (BR1M).”

He pointed out that even fishermen were getting paid RM300 a month when they are not civil servants. All these, he said, was simply to buy over people with “stolen money”.

BR1M was introduced in 2012 and the amounts were increased yearly. This year, however, there was no increase. Households earning below RM3,000 a month will receive RM1,200, while those earning between RM3,000 and RM4,000 will receive RM900.

Single individuals earning RM2,000 and below will continue to receive RM450. In total, RM6.8 billion was allocated in this year’s budget for the 7.2 million recipients.

After Pakatan Harapan took over federal power in GE14, it announced that BR1M would be replaced. Dr Mahathir had then said the mechanism for the new aid, called Bantuan Sara Hidup Malaysia (Cost of Living Aid), will be totally different from BR1M. There, however, has been no further announcement on the new mechanism.

The third stage of the Cost of Living Aid 2018 payment was paid before the Hari Raya Aidiladha celebration. The payment, involving an allocation of RM1.6 billion, was paid out to almost 4.1 million recipients.

“But the people still want BR1M. They have become very dependant on the government and that is very bad.

“Any country where the people think that the government owes them for doing nothing, will become bankrupt,” Dr Mahathir said.

He pointed out that a household earning RM4,000 a month, will earn RM48,000 a year. He then questioned what was RM500 (BR1M) to this household.

“Why do you give them RM500? Because you want to be popular. And strangely enough people accept this. But I know in Ipoh (Perak), there are people who refused to accept BR1M.”

He said the new government’s objective now is to create as many jobs as possible through domestic and foreign investments, to make Malaysians more independent.

“We will slowly reduce what we can give them (BR1M) and explain to them our objectives.

“I have always talked about crutches, throw away your crutches, walk on your own feet. Then you become strong and you will do well.

“If you mollycoddle the people, they become weak,” Dr Mahathir added. – August 25, 2018.