LETTER | Crumbs for the people, pudding and pie for politicians

LETTER | The RM38.5 million renovation cost incurred to spruce up Seri Perdana, the official residence of the prime minister, is registering waves in social media.

Contrast that spending with the government-approved RM15 million to be shared by 63 Chinese independent schools nationwide that operate in the spirit of non-profitability.

That is the pathetic benchmark of how ridiculously luxurious and lavish our lifestyle politicians have transformed themselves into.

In short, it is crumbs for the rakyat and pudding and pie for those within the corridors of power.

While the entire population of bumiputera students study on borrowed money (PTPTN loans), the policy-makers trumpet a 51 percent bumiputera shareholding in the non-Malay freight forwarding and logistics businesses.

Immoral lifestyles

And the ones who will be laughing all the way to the banks is not the farmer, rubber tapper or fisherman. Your guess will be as good as mine.

Covid-19 continues to rip into almost every working-class segment of society – be it B40 or M40. Yet we continue to witness the immoral lifestyles of politicians being so well cocooned.

The news of the RM100,000 monthly pensions that will fall onto the laps of retiring politicians may only be the tip of the icing as they and their proxies and kith and kin enjoy the spoils of the 51 percent bumiputera shares.

Even the clothes they wear, let alone the pearls and diamonds and gold that adorn their wardrobes and chests, will make any thinking creature to choke.

Plundering the nation

That is the lot of what our politicians have turned out to be, with their successful singing of the intoxicating mantra of race, religion and royalty that somehow has a paralysing effect on the populace.

When will all this opulence, wastage and exploitation end? When will reasonableness and morality return to be the glue of the nation’s future? Will it ever?

While the democratic (and even communist) world around us is progressing at speed with transparency, accountability and meritocracy, we are grounded with blinkers that allow politicians to continue their raping and plundering of the wealth of our nation to feed their luxurious, lavish lifestyles – both within our shores and overseas.

In the face of all these ugly truths, what do we tell our children?

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.