I HAVE learnt one lesson all this while: Earning money is the problem, not spending it.
NEEDY FAMILY: A hardcore poor villager in Kelantan, Fatimah Mat Amin (right) with her daughter Hamidah Omar (second left) and grand children staying in a shabby house in Kampung Telong, Bachok. Do you expect this woman to collect money from the Welfare office in town?. — Bernama file photo.
On 13th of this month, Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department Datin Fatimah Abdullah was reported by the media revealing the existence of a lot of money “gathering dust in government coffers somewhere”.
This money is meant for the poor people in Sarawak. Vast sums, not specified, have remained unutilised due to poor communication between authorities and the target groups, lamented the minister in the chief minister’s office.
That report has not been clarified or denied. Subject to correction, one may assume it’s true.
What a dilemma – to spend or not to spend. It’s an embarrassment to those who are entrusted with that kind of money; not knowing how to spend it.
Give it to me lah!
Let’s tackle this in a logical fashion: first the good news, then the bad
Good: the funds are available for immediate use. Government as such cannot be blamed for not allocating money to the marginalised sector of the population.
Bad: It reflects poorly on shoddy management of taxpayers’ money by the people who are paid to spend it on the poverty eradication programmes.
It does not say much about effective supervision on the part of the ministries or agencies which handle the taxpayers’ money.
Some aid doesn’t reach the target groups simply because these people do not ‘come and get it’ often because they don’t even know there is aid available, and they are eligible to receive it.
Good news again: Here we have a minister who dares to state the problem in public. She may have stepped on somebody’s toes but she has earned the respect of many sensible people.
Bad news again: It reflects on poor dissemination of information on the part of the relevant government departments and agencies concerned, despite the sophisticated and modern tools of communication at their disposal nowadays.
Why was the existence of the funds not made known to the people who should know?
The YB in each constituency would be too happy to disburse funds and get publicity for being generous and caring. His or her political party will also claim the credit and gloat over it … of course ADUN or MP from the Opposition will also use it for the poor in their respective constituencies.
FROM THE HORSE’S MOUTH
Declared the officer from the Sarawak Welfare Department:
“The federal and state governments give allocations every year for the handicapped, single mothers, aged, those poor living alone, hard core poor families earning below the poverty line for state categories and federal categories, those afflicted by serious illnesses, those taking care of the needy and bedridden in their families, and even for drug addicts and children who need funds to pay for school buses”.
She continued, “The government even has funds to help the critically ill needing regular medical help, like end stage of kidney disease patients. Unfortunately, there are still many needy who do not know about these funds. The federal and state governments had indeed devised many different plans to financially help as many deserving needy families and individuals as possible, but sadly, there were not many who applied.”
Amazing disclosure!
To the poor this situation is puzzling – money for them remaining unutilised or underutilised – so near and yet so far. They have been blamed for not begging for it.
Has it occurred to the officials in the relevant department that many poor people in this country do not beg in the streets? It is not part of our culture. They prefer to suffer and scratch a living on their own strength and then die quietly.
That is why you don’t see beggars from the longhouses in the towns of Sarawak. The poor from the longhouses will never beg, how hard up they may be.
If you do not deliver the help to them, they don’t come to collect it. They are fatalistic, and full of pride. Such a cultural trait does exist in our society. Apply this knowledge, and soon you will run out of funds for the poor.
The countryside is crawling with government’s agents. They should work on this cultural thing by being proactive, by visiting the poor instead of waiting for them to collect the money from the Welfare office in town – which may be a long, expensive trip from where the poor fellow is living!
The problem is that they do not know how or where or when to collect the aid. From time to time the JASA people organise talks about government policies in the longhouses. That’s the time to inform people of where and when and from whom to collect the financial assistance.
The invalid, the bedridden, the sick cannot be expected to spend time and money to go down to the Welfare office during office hours. From Ulu Belaga a fellow needs to spend more than RM150 for tambang, food and accommodation at Kapit town, all to collect a RM100 welfare cheque !
NGOs WILLING TO HELP
Make use of the services of the Tuai Rumah or the Penghulu or the Pemanca or councillors in the area. YB and his entourage on his rounds of his constituency have all the facilities to carry out a survey of the poor and the needy in each place and the list can easily be drawn up and the information therein shared with the Welfare office, or even with the mass media.
Enlist the support of the NGOs including the churches and other charitable organisations; they are too happy to help with the distribution of the money, if indeed it is easily available in abundance.
The countryside is crawling with government’s agents who can help draw up the lists of the people in need of help.
They are better fed and can travel in good vehicles or boats. There will be hardship allowances to claim upon returning from travelling. In return, a report for the various agencies could be extended for their action.
They should deliver the gifts to the target groups personally as far as possible, at the longhouses or kampongs or settlements wherever the target groups happen to be residing, irrespective of their ethnicity or political affiliations.
Each and every district office maintains an operation room displaying data on development plans and other statistics – this constitute the profile of a district.
What’s the problem of putting information on the number of poor single mothers with school going children; a list of invalids languishing in the longhouses or in the village or bazaar – the victims of accidents in timber camps or plantations; a list of victims of accidents whose injury or death is not covered by insurance (Workmen’s Compensation); never contributed to EPF or SOCSO.
Are people like these eligible for the welfare aid?
If not, can the money be kept until the next election?
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