Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad has said that the government will cut back on the Cost of Living Aid (COLA) or 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) as it was previously known gradually before being discontinued permanently.
In an interview with The Malaysian Insight, Tun Mahathir has blamed the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) government for “spoiling” the people with the payouts. He also said the people should stop depending so much on the government and believing that they are entitled to money without work.
Source: FMT
“Najib spoilt the people by making them think that without doing any work the government would give them money. Now we are not able to give them money because we do not steal money, but they still want money (BR1M),” he said in the interview.
“We will gradually reduce the amount of BR1M given to the people and explain to them what is the objective of this. I am always talking about ‘crutches’ given to the people. They should throw away their ‘crutches’ and learn to walk on their own two feet. You will only be able to be a strong and better person if you do so. If a government only knows how to keep spoon-feeding the people, the rakyat will become weak,” he explained.
Source: Malay Mail
He also added that the rakyat was still in favour of BR1M and this has made them become very dependent on the government, and stated that this reliance is not a good thing.
“Any country where the people feel that the government will pay money despite doing nothing, it will go bankrupt,” he added.
Tun Mahathir has also said that the new government’s objective was to provide as much job opportunities as possible through foreign and domestic investments. Pakatan Harapan had earlier announced that it would replace BR1M with COLA when it succeeded in taking over the government after the 14th general election (GE14).
Source: iMoney
Malaysiakini stated that BR1M was introduced by the BN government back in 2012 for those with a household income of RM3,000 and below receiving RM1,200, while those earning between RM3,000 and RM4,000 are eligible to receive RM900 a year.
Individuals earning RM2,000 and below receive a total of RM450. All in all, RM6.8 billion was allocated in this year’s budget to 7.2 million recipients.
What do you guys think? Should the government take away this ‘tongkat’ and completely abolish BR1M or is it still beneficial for the rakyat? Let us know in the comments below!
Also read: Tun Mahathir Confirms That the Govt Will Be Abolishing SOSMA Soon
