My Abah And His Subsidy My late father, Zainun Ismail (I addressed him as abah), at the age of eighty something, died a poor man. In his entire life he had never own a car, I doubt he ever had a driving licence. He either move around town using his trusted old reliegh bicycle or, for the last 30 years of his life, using his Honda 70 (now commonly known as kapcai). I was thinking, how much was the direct benefit of petrol subsidy that he enjoyed in his entire life? My wild guess is that his kapcai probably consumed about 20 liters of RON95 a month, and at the subsidy of 83 sens per liter, direct benefit of gas subsidy my late father enjoyed per month was about RM16.60, and in a year, RM199.20 My one KFC dinner plate is about equivalent to a month’s subsidy my late father enjoyed. In his entire life, that would amount to about RM6,000.00 assuming the subsidy remain constant. I know a friend who owns a Rolls Royce. I have many friends who have nothing less than 4 cars in their driveways, and these are 2000cc to 3500cc cars. Their gas consumption in a month can chalk up to 1,000 liters. Direct benefit a year, these guys enjoy in terms of petrol subsidy is RM830 a month or RM9,960.00, yes, that’s about ten grand, a year. For 30 years? Granted, my late father has never paid income tax in his entire life. He was a rubber tapper, he has a 4 ‘relong’ rubber plantation that gave him about RM500 to RM700 income a month (during good time). And I remember how he would curse and swear everytime there is a price increase in petrol. To him, the authorities should continue to subsidise petrol. Poor abah, he doesn’t understand who benefitted most from the sudsidy. Do I argue with him? No, he would not understand. You see, my late abah represent hundred of thousands poor, simple minded, naive kampong folks, in remote places in Kelantan, Kedah and Trengganu. Figure crunching is not their forte and they will not be able to see whats beyond one plus one equals two. Somebody asked me what about the subsidy on cooking oil, flour and sugar? My answer is simple, take a guess, how many kilos of flour, sugar or cooking oil does a poor man like my abah consume in a month (bear in mind, his monthly income ranges from RM500 to RM700 only). Now, take another guess; how many kilos of those things do a roti canai mamak used in a day? A month? I am confused. People say subsidies are there to help the have nots like my abah. But my very simple analysis does not indicate so. Who actually benefitted from all the subsidies? The haves? Or the have nots? You want to know how my abah’s house is? A simple wooden house built on stilts by a padi field at Sg Bayor Selama Perak. He probably has nothing more than 10 light bulbs in his house and two tap heads; one in the kitchen and one in their make shift bathroom. So, how much do you think his TNB or water bills a month? How much do you think he benefitted from any subsidy, if any, from TNB or water bills? The irony of the whole issue is that politicians would make a big fuss about how authorities ‘menginaya’ poor folks whenever there are increase in price of assential items (as a result of reduction in subsidies). Thereafter, everybody, especially the poor, would echo those same dissatisfactions, without realizing that they are actually fighting for the rich, and that the poor NEVER actually benefitted from the subsidies. If I have my way, I say we should abolish those subsidies. Yes I agree, it is not an easy task to structurally dismantle the subsidy mechanism, but we have to do it. We have to restructure the mechanism so that poor people like my abah actually benefit from the subsidy, and not the rich Ah Chong or the rich Ahmad who own 4 to 5 cars. If I have my way, I will continue the subsidy not in the way it is done now. I will, instead give those poor people like abah subsidy based on every kilo of rubber sheets they get from tapping their small plantations, or for every gantang of padi they get from their sawah. I know they will work hard to increase their production, knowing very well that they will rewarded direct based on the kilos or gantangs of their output. In the meantime, I will tell my abah (through my prayers) that the government is building new LRT network from whatever savings from the current subsidy, but up to Sg Buluh only. LRT to Sg Bayor Selama, Perak? It will take another century, god willing. Happy reading. Rahim Zainun (08/09/2013).
Posted on: Sun, 08 Sep 2013 03:24:36 +0000
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