Donations for Malaysia Floods' Victims ?
When there are human tragedies outside Malaysia, Malaysians as a whole became very generous and morally motivated to donate to the victims. But when it come to donating to victims within Malaysia, the spirits of charity became waned and elusive.
With regards to the recent flood disasters in Johor, Malacca, Negri Sembilan and several other states, the floods maybe gone or receded, but there are still thousands of people misplaced or homeless, and are living in deplorable conditions and miseries.
The Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil said "What Malaysians can do is to make life more bearable for the victims. They were poor to begin with and now, with what little they had washed away, they are close to becoming destitute." "I have seen poverty but never like this. When I come back after visiting the flood victims, I cannot sleep at night. Just think how much worse it is for those working to help them and how much more worse it is for the victims themselves, especially the children." This sounds like an urgent appeal from a Minister in the government to all Malaysians. I guess it would be more appropriate if this appeal is directed to the government of Malaysia and the elected representatives.
Why, when there is a disaster outside Malaysia, Malaysian spontaneously rushed to offer donations to help the unfortunates ? I would like to believe that, one of the main reason is, Malaysians are more comfortable giving donations via international aids agencies. Because, Malaysians know, the donations will be fairly distributed to the victims irregardless of race, religion, or creed.
The other reasons could be due to the fact that (1) Malaysians are economically not that well off as compared to the previous occasions. And, (2) Due to the recent racially divisive comments and statements made by the local politicians in other unrelated functions and events, and as well as the general perception of abused of power and corruptions, Malaysians are basically uncomfortable in donating to charitable causes that may end up being distributed along racial lines or portion of the donations being corruptly siphoned off by immoral middlemen.
With regards to collecting donations for the Malaysian victims, perhaps, the government agencies and local newspapers can publish a list of associations or charitable organizations located within or closed to the vicinity of the tragedies so that Malaysians can donate direct to these associations or organizations to cut down the number of "middle men" and to minimized the potential of improprieties.
The government of Malaysia still has the financial resources to reallocate funds to help Malaysian victims without having to seek generosities of unaffected Malaysians. For example, recently, the Prime Minister announced the extra allocations of RM 3 millions for each of Barisan Nasional's political parties' division, that works out to be approximately RM 600 millions. This RM 600 millions should be reallocated to help the floods victims. The government has also recently agreed to raised the toll charges and subsidized a few billion ringgits to toll concessionaires. The government of Malaysia has also committed to send 2 Malaysian "cosmonauts" to space to taste "roti canai". And the list goes on and on..... The question is, are these expenses more important than the sufferings and miseries of other unfortunate Malaysians ? I think not. Morally, the government has to do a rethink of all these "unnecessary" resources misallocations. It is the responsibility of the government to eliminate the sufferings of unfortunate Malaysians. Average Malaysians should not be abused into blindly donating for the sake of donating while the government funds are unnecessarily allocated. All it needs now is for the Prime Minister to make an executive instruction to make the reallocations. On moral grounds and on the basis of the proclaimed "caring government", I see no reason why this reallocations of economic resources can not be initiated to help and lessen the miseries of other unfortunate Malaysians.
There is no point for politicians to visit the affected areas, crying rhetorics, then calling for Malaysians to make donations. The right thing to do is for the politicians to visit the affected areas and make immediate disbursement of funds from their political machineries. Charity does begin at home. But in this case, the home is at the executive offices of the Government of Malaysia. Malaysians as a whole, look up to the government to effect immediate financial aids to help the unfortunate flood victims in Johor, Malacca, Negeri Sembilan, and other affected states.
Same as the honourable Minister, Datuk Seri Shahrizat, there are a lot of caring Malaysians out there, also can not sleep, knowing that there are so many victims of tragedies living in miseries, while the government spend unneccesarily. Where is the priority ?
In the mean time, while awaiting the government to reassess her priority and morality, I urged all able Malaysians to donate directly to the victims to offer immediate reliefs to the miseries of the victims. May God lessen the emotional and financial losses of the victims.
With regards to the recent flood disasters in Johor, Malacca, Negri Sembilan and several other states, the floods maybe gone or receded, but there are still thousands of people misplaced or homeless, and are living in deplorable conditions and miseries.
The Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil said "What Malaysians can do is to make life more bearable for the victims. They were poor to begin with and now, with what little they had washed away, they are close to becoming destitute." "I have seen poverty but never like this. When I come back after visiting the flood victims, I cannot sleep at night. Just think how much worse it is for those working to help them and how much more worse it is for the victims themselves, especially the children." This sounds like an urgent appeal from a Minister in the government to all Malaysians. I guess it would be more appropriate if this appeal is directed to the government of Malaysia and the elected representatives.
Why, when there is a disaster outside Malaysia, Malaysian spontaneously rushed to offer donations to help the unfortunates ? I would like to believe that, one of the main reason is, Malaysians are more comfortable giving donations via international aids agencies. Because, Malaysians know, the donations will be fairly distributed to the victims irregardless of race, religion, or creed.
The other reasons could be due to the fact that (1) Malaysians are economically not that well off as compared to the previous occasions. And, (2) Due to the recent racially divisive comments and statements made by the local politicians in other unrelated functions and events, and as well as the general perception of abused of power and corruptions, Malaysians are basically uncomfortable in donating to charitable causes that may end up being distributed along racial lines or portion of the donations being corruptly siphoned off by immoral middlemen.
With regards to collecting donations for the Malaysian victims, perhaps, the government agencies and local newspapers can publish a list of associations or charitable organizations located within or closed to the vicinity of the tragedies so that Malaysians can donate direct to these associations or organizations to cut down the number of "middle men" and to minimized the potential of improprieties.
The government of Malaysia still has the financial resources to reallocate funds to help Malaysian victims without having to seek generosities of unaffected Malaysians. For example, recently, the Prime Minister announced the extra allocations of RM 3 millions for each of Barisan Nasional's political parties' division, that works out to be approximately RM 600 millions. This RM 600 millions should be reallocated to help the floods victims. The government has also recently agreed to raised the toll charges and subsidized a few billion ringgits to toll concessionaires. The government of Malaysia has also committed to send 2 Malaysian "cosmonauts" to space to taste "roti canai". And the list goes on and on..... The question is, are these expenses more important than the sufferings and miseries of other unfortunate Malaysians ? I think not. Morally, the government has to do a rethink of all these "unnecessary" resources misallocations. It is the responsibility of the government to eliminate the sufferings of unfortunate Malaysians. Average Malaysians should not be abused into blindly donating for the sake of donating while the government funds are unnecessarily allocated. All it needs now is for the Prime Minister to make an executive instruction to make the reallocations. On moral grounds and on the basis of the proclaimed "caring government", I see no reason why this reallocations of economic resources can not be initiated to help and lessen the miseries of other unfortunate Malaysians.
There is no point for politicians to visit the affected areas, crying rhetorics, then calling for Malaysians to make donations. The right thing to do is for the politicians to visit the affected areas and make immediate disbursement of funds from their political machineries. Charity does begin at home. But in this case, the home is at the executive offices of the Government of Malaysia. Malaysians as a whole, look up to the government to effect immediate financial aids to help the unfortunate flood victims in Johor, Malacca, Negeri Sembilan, and other affected states.
Same as the honourable Minister, Datuk Seri Shahrizat, there are a lot of caring Malaysians out there, also can not sleep, knowing that there are so many victims of tragedies living in miseries, while the government spend unneccesarily. Where is the priority ?
In the mean time, while awaiting the government to reassess her priority and morality, I urged all able Malaysians to donate directly to the victims to offer immediate reliefs to the miseries of the victims. May God lessen the emotional and financial losses of the victims.
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