KUALA LUMPUR, July 9 — DAP urged the federal government today to make good on its previous promise to increase the monthly welfare assistance to impoverished Malaysians to RM1,000.
The Opposition party likened the one-off financial assistance announced recently to a “band-aid” that provides only temporary relief at a time when the economy is being crippled by the extended Covid-19 lockdowns.
“The old method of one-off aid is a mere financial band-aid that will not protect the economic livelihood of ordinary workers and financially distressed Malaysians,” DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said in a statement.
He added that there must be a series of financial aid on a regular basis to save Malaysian jobs, businesses, and livelihoods.
He suggested that the promised increase of RM1,000 monthly to Malaysians in need of assistance would be less financially taxing on the government in the long-term at the current rate the country’s lockdowns are going.
“What is the additional RM1 billion monthly compared to the cost of the current total lockdown estimated at RM170 billion by economists?
“DAP is not suggesting a higher sum of RM1,500 monthly because this increase to RM1,000 monthly welfare aid was a promise made by Muhyiddin during last year’s Sabah state general election promise,” Lim said.
The Bagan MP was referring to Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s proposal made last August during the Sabah state election, that the Social Welfare Department’s monthly aid of between RM200 and RM300 be raised to RM1,000.
The prime minister was also reported saying that the proposal would be tabled at the Cabinet meeting that same month.
