Ten ringgit is about the amount a civil servant around the country spends daily during his or her routine break at the canteen.
When I was a cadet reporter with Bernama almost 50 years ago, I earned less than RM10 a day but this humble sum could get me and my peers a lot more than it does today.
Of course, salaries have gone up by leaps and bounds since then but this era of the new normal that we have entered into since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic last year has made life so much tougher for low-earning Malaysians and those in the B40 group.
Tens of thousands have lost their jobs which used to earn for them salaries that were hardly enough to make ends meet, especially those in the urban centres.
The pandemic has brought forth in graphic clarity, thanks to social media, the many cases of urban poverty as residents struggle to put food on the table to begin with.
There are three recent videos that are heartbreaking to watch, especially one that shows homeless kids asking for boxes to sit or sleep on in the streets following their now jobless parents.
Another video is that of a girl hardly 12 years old, perhaps in the Klang Valley, rummaging through a heap of garbage for whatever discarded food she can find.
And then the story of how Petaling Jaya OCPD, ACP Ezanee Mohd Faisal, went out of his way to help a poor housewife who was caught shoplifting food and medication for her children.
As Prof Dr Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi wrote in his newspaper column, the police chief had the compassion of Islam to reinterpret the “crime” in a spiritual manner rather than in a literal, legal way. Salute to ACP Ezanee!
These scenarios are happening right here in our own backyard.
I’m sorry to keep readers in suspense as to what I mean by “This RM10 can go a very long way” in the heading and involving civil servants as well.
I take the liberty here to make an out-of-the-box proposal that, if implementable or better still, implemented, can indeed go towards helping not only the three cases mentioned above but the thousands of others struggling out there to put food on the table or a decent roof over their heads, especially in this seemingly endless pandemic.
We have some 1.6 million civil servants who, pandemic or not, get paid steady incomes without fail and are the envy of those in the private sector who have to go through uncertainties and all sorts of hardships.
I propose that the government initiates a special fund from just a monthly RM10 contribution or salary deduction from civil servants.
In just three months’ collection, this fund will balloon to RM48 million!
The amount will indeed go a long way towards bringing relief to poor Malaysians whose livelihoods have turned topsy-turvy by various stages of the movement control order since a year ago.
To its credit, the government has come out with a series of aid programmes for the needy and this fund is another initiative that could come in very handy out of the generosity of our civil servants.
They should not have any qualms about making this contribution as part of their rare corporate social responsibility effort and it’s time to pay back for all the good fortunes they enjoy.
Just imagine if this salary deduction is extended to six months, close to RM100 million or RM96 million to be exact, can be collected.
And of course, the tens of thousands in the higher income brackets would feel it’s beneath them to just chip in RM10.
They are free to contribute more and I am sure they would.
It’s not for me to dwell into the mechanics of how to implement this proposal.
It’s a no brainer actually. It’s very doable.
The funds to be raised would not only put food on the table, but provide shelter as well to the countless number of homeless Malaysians sleeping on pavements and overhead bridges, for example.
In this regard, I must on behalf of others who cannot publicly express their thanks, record our highest gratitude to someone among us who should be described as Malaysia’s No. 1 Good Samaritan.
He’s none other than Islamic preacher Ustaz Ebit Lew, who daily goes out in search of fellow Malaysians in need of food and shelter.
He must have reached out to thousands of such needy souls by now.
We certainly are in dire need of more Ebit Lews in our midst as we struggle to pull through these toughest times in our lifetime.
Our current Chief Secretary to the Government or better known as KSN, Tan Sri Mohd Zuki Ali, is the 15th head of the civil service.
If he could get this proposal off the ground, there is no doubt whatsoever in my mind, as a government pensioner myself, that he will be the KSN that the rakyat will remember and be grateful for a long, long time to come.
Comment: letters@thesundaily.com
