Dear all,

Another comment I posted at Tun Mahathir blog:

Dear Tun Dr Mahathir,

I agreed with Hajar, “Untuk rakyat biasa pula, saya selalu lihat orang komplen yang kehidupan mereka susah, tidak cukup duit, tiada pendapatan, dll. tetapi kalau tengok cara mereka berbelanja, tepuk dahi saya dibuatnya sebab banyak pembaziran berlaku! Simpanan untuk kecemasan pun tiada.

Saya yang duit berkepuk-kepuk pun (Alhamdulillah…) tidak seboros mereka. Sikap @ Tabiat pun sudah tidak betul, memang sampai bila-bila pun akan sengkek dan mengharap bantuan!

Lagi satu ada yang tidak tahu perbezaan di antara sikap berjimat-cermat dan kedekut. Sebab itulah kita ada manusia yang sehingga ke tua pun masih lagi mengharapkan bantuan Kerajaan. Maaf cakaplah…”

My brother, sister and sister in-law who works as teacher and civil servant readily donated the “Bantuan” deposit into their bank account to orphanage and old folk home as they feel it is morally wrong to keep the money when they are not financially affected by Covid-19 pandemic.

Malaysians were fortunate to be blessed with whether it is BN, PH or PN’s government, many form of “Bantuans” are given to “ambil hati” pengundi. But do Malaysians know what it means to be Malaysian, our nationhood and what it means by hardships?

I am dumfounded that our East Malaysian brother had the audacity to claim that Malaysia Prime Minister post is seen as demotion compare to the post of Chief Minister of Sabah or Sarawak.

As for hardship please allow me to refer to below two articles:

https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2368861/falling-cliff-lebanons-poor-borrow-buy-bread

Tripoli is home to some of Lebanon’s wealthiest politicians, who critics say only remember their constituents at election time.

“If it was not for the neighbors here sending food to each other, people would be dying of hunger,” said Omar al-Hakim, who lives with his six children and wife in a one-room apartment.

The salary of 600,000 pounds a month he makes as a security guard now lasts just six days. Before the pound’s collapse, it was the equivalent of $400 a month. Today, it is around $60.

Basics such as sugar, rice and lentils become harder to buy, he says. This week, Hakim was hit by a one third increase in the price of state-subsidized bread.

“We used to eat meat on Sunday, or fish, or chicken ... none of that now. We can’t afford an ounce of meat,” Hakim said.

The World Bank warned last November that the proportion of Lebanese living in poverty could rise to 50% if conditions worsened. Since then the crisis has only deepened and the economy has been further hit by a COVID-19 lockdown.

Many people depend on charity. Some are using social media to barter furniture or clothes for baby formula or diapers.

Shopkeeper Kawkab Abdelrahim, 30, is struggling to keep her store open as she extends more and more credit.

“Do you have the heart to turn them away if they want a bag of bread? Sometimes they ask for a tub of yoghurt or 1,000 pounds of labneh,” she said, referring to a type of strained yoghurt that is a Lebanese staple. That is one spoonful that a mother spreads on bread to feed three children.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/04/it-feels-like-a-failed-state-lebanon-crisis-deepens-as-it-awaits-bailout

Regime’s critics call for overhaul of system of patronage many say has reinforced widespread corruption.

Overhauling patronage systems that entrenched warlords at the end of a 15-year conflict and have turned all state institutions into fiefs, has been a central demand of the IMF and international community. “You would not think this would be difficult,” said a senior European diplomat. “We have been begging them to behave like a normal state, and they are acting like they are selling us a carpet.”

Another senior diplomat, who like others declined to be named, said: “Lebanon no longer has anything like a lustre. It just feels like a failed state.”

How to stymie the wounds seems obvious to those who took to the streets last October, calling for an overhaul of a sclerotic system that many said has enfeebled the country by reinforcing widespread corruption, denying them opportunities on merit and turning citizens into subjects.

Thank you

Yours truly,

SS LEE

PS: Kleptocracy, Orthodoxy, Religiosity, Sectarianism, Corruption and Patronage had plunged Lebanon into a failed state. Will Malaysia fall into the same fate when our oil wealth is exhausted? Or will our strength in diversity save us from becoming a failed state?