It saddens me because after The Star published an article on a student who has to live on RM1 a day, now we are faced with a mother who has to care for 6 children living on RM70 a month. What's worse is that the boy had committed suicide. The reason?
"My son replied there would be fewer people to feed and to take care of if he were to go and that his share of the food could be given to his brothers and sisters," she said, fighting back tears. [Source: Daily Express]
Not only is she fighting back her tears, I'm also trying to hold back mine. Remember when I talked about the Gini coefficient of Malaysia? If you seriously believe that the situation has improved in our country, then as popular saying goes, please believe that pigs can fly too.
What angers me is not because that the leaders of our country lied to us about our improved life. Sure, urban citizens may see an improvement in infrastructure, but when it comes to basic needs, we are still far behind first world countries. There are just too many people under absolute poverty. I know this because my family has our roots in a small village and I've seen a lot of relatives living in relative poverty(not absolute poverty here I hope).
What angers me is the fact that people are suffering in the very state which has a chief minister whose how much his personal wealth is a topic of dispute in the public. Want more images to confirm, click here to see those evidence. When there's a bit of corruption it's the ACA's issue, when there is corruption of such a mammoth scale, it's a national issue.
We really need to address this issue in a progressive manner. Enough with the debates of who should benefit from the NEP, let us put our minds into figuring out how to help those out of these poverty traps.
Barely 2 years ago, Pak Lah said here that he wants absolute poverty to be totally eradicated in this country within 5 years. How much have we progressed? I believe the answer should be very clear to you.
References:
- Suicide lad's mum breaks silence, Daily Express, 7 April 2007.
- Malaysia had set new target to eradicate absolute poverty in the country, bes. online rtm, 24 July 2004.
4 comments:
If only that woman was living in a place with a by-election.
"The Malaysian" blog just reported Khir Toyo will "immediately" start spending RM36 million on upgrading Ijok to get the people to vote BN.
We should send the poor woman to Putrajaya and look at one single lamppost (I think RM30K) that can feed her and family for 2 years or more.
wah are you serious it's that expensive? But yea in Putrajaya, everything is so overly lavish
Have you seen them, the green/gold ones? Including installation, yes, around there. Each lamp-post is custom made, and there are more than 7 different designs.
But the manufacturer actually got sued last year because they stole some of the designs from another company!
wah got such thing ar? I haven't heard of it, oh well that 1 i think have to blame the mahathir govt then. hehehe but blame also no use, the damage has been done.
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