Injustice: Welfare Stopped Due To Political Affiliation

It was reported in The Sun on 5 March 2012 that  Assistant Minister of Modernisation of Agriculture Datuk Mong Dagang had instructed the Welfare Department to stop welfare assistance to a handicapped person, Frusis Lebi.

Datuk Mong Dagang

According to the report his reasons for stopping welfare assistance and subsidies was "because he (meaning Frusis Lebi) is a strong Opposition supporter".

He was quoted in the same daily saying that the "welfare assistance shouldn't have been given in the first place because he can plant padi and ride a normal motorcycle like a normal person".

He allegedly wrote a letter to the Welfare Department and the Agriculture Department stating that Lebi "is against government policies and openly supported the Opposition candidate in Bukit Begunan constituency in the 2011 state elections."

The letter allegedly written by Datuk Mong Dagang

In another report in the same daily, his colleague in the government Tan Sri Dr James Masing, Land Development Minister has defended Datuk Mong Dagang's actions.

Tan Sri Dr James Masing

Masing is quoted in the daily as saying "follow the rule of life, that is jangan lawan towkay. In any organisation, we cannot go against the boss. That is the golden rule in life which we must observe."

Now I don't know why there is not a bigger furore over these unsettling developments in Sarawak.

The fact that an elected official fails to recognise that it is the tax payers, not his political party, who funds the Welfare Department and the machinations that we call OUR government, proves one and for all the sorry state of our country's governance.

The disbursement of such welfare subsidies should not be based on the whims and fancy of a politician. Instead, it should be based on the a set criteria which is transparent and consistent in its application.

Based on what Datuk Mong Dagang allegedly wrote in his letter, it appears that the only reason given to stop the subsidies was that the welfare recipient openly supported the opposition. His subsequent defence that Lebi should not have qualified for assistance in the first place seems like an afterthought, a weak excuse.

To have the Land Minister say, "don't fight the boss because it is the rule of life" speaks volume of the way the government views themselves. Instead of being of public service to the citizens of Malaysia, they act as if they are, in Masing's own words, "bosses and towkays". From what I understand, bosses are people who usually own the organisation, i.e. the shareholders in a company. So, could this mean that Masing sees themselves as owners of Malaysia, and that we are all merely their employees? If you dare quote the "rule of life", how about the "rule of law"?

Gerhard Kocher said, "Ask not what the government can do for you. Ask why it doesn't."

In this case, the reason why it doesn't is merely because you did not cast your vote for them. By following this line of logic, students who are currently on government scholarship may also risk losing financial assistance if they dare to even speak up against the establishment. Businesses which do not toe the line of the political parties currently in power risk being sidelined in the awarding of government contracts.

I continue to use the term "government scholarships" and "government contracts" although the money that goes into the scholarships and the public contracts, belongs to us Malaysians, not the ministers or their cronies.

Do we still need any further reasons to realise that we need to demand our elected officials to be held to a higher benchmark and standard than what Dagang and Masing have exhibited in this instance?

Blessed is the country where her people sees the government and themselves as one and the same.