LETTER | Budget 2021 repudiates the importance of health care

LETTER | The essence of a good national budget is its ability to address equity and sustainability. Equity and sustainability would help ensure the common good of the nation even though it might not be perfect in its execution.

One of the fundamental principles of budget equity is in its treatment of health care especially for those most vulnerable. Robust health care sustains a nation in terms of healthy citizens with an increase in productivity. While Malaysia has made some strides in health care over the years, the current preoccupation of politicians to stay in power at all costs has a direct bearing on priorities.

Even though we have passed 60 years of independence, national leaders are still in the conundrum of race and religion-centred privilege that continuous to plague the nation’s priority especially in budget allocation that tends to mollify race and religious elites, with an obsession with power and control which supersedes even the importance of critical human rights such as health care.

Budget 2021 is ethnically-inclined,unsustainable, and deserves to be rejected by people of conscience. Health care, which is regarded as a critical social-economic indicator of a progressive society, has been put into regressive budget reduction, while there is an increase in allocation for departments like Jasa and Islamic affairs under the Prime Minister’s department.

While the country is going through a health crisis due to Covid-19 that would place a strain on the budget in dealing with other chronic health issues, Jasa has been allocated RM85.5 million while Islamic affairs under the PM’s department was allocated RM1.4 billion of taxpayer money. An increase from RM1.3 billion in 2020.

One wonders whether such an increase could have been channelled to the Health Ministry.

The reasoning was that allocation for Jasa was to promote national unity in fighting Covid-19. That does not make sense since unity in an authentic sense is reflected in policies of the government and its leaders’ vision of a united society in the context of a pandemic. One does not need a special allocation for it.

Budget 2021 has seen a reduction in allocation in treating critical illnesses. According to press reports, the Health Ministry has reduced its medical budget by 20.5 percent from RM 14.2 billion in 2020 to RM 11.3 billion in 2021.

This means wide-ranging cuts across all health care services, including a massive 74 percent decrease for pharmacy and suppliers. Allocation for mental health has also seen a reduction of allocation decreasing by 9.1 percent (RM31 million) from RM344 mil in 2020 to 313 mil in 2021.

These are happening in the context of an increase in the need of mental support among certain Malaysians who find it difficult to cope with anxiety and stress due to loss of livelihoods. Can a nation afford to reduce its health expenditure and build a sustainable and equitable social economy?

Therefore, the Association for Community and Dialogue (Acid) urges all parliamentarians with a conscience to call upon the Perikatan Nasional government to review its budget allocation by focusing on the essentials instead of its current priorities which are ethnocentric, anti-equity and unsustainable.

It ignores fundamental human rights such as the importance of well-funded health care. If it’s not possible for a review the budget should be rejected.