YOURSAY 'The government is frantically giving out BR1M to some citizens, and it is frantically borrowing money from, who else, the citizens.'

Najib drops hint into BR1M recipients' letterboxes

Anonymous_40f4 : Firstly, the Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M) letter does not have the name and address of the sender and is not signed, and secondly, BN chief Najib Razak is now no longer the PM but in the letter he claims he is the PM.

And finally, millions of ringgit have been wasted in postage, printing costs and labour. How sickening.

Kim Quek: The motive of this massive mailing exercise is clearly to solicit votes. Stamps alone should cost RM4.2 million (6 sen x 7 million), and with printing and other costs, the total bill should be over RM5 million.

Hence, Najib is guilty of abusing his authority in squandering RM5 million of public funds to carry out an election campaign for himself and his party.

Since no law-enforcing body can be expected to act against him, we can and we must mete out the appropriate punishment via our votes on polling day.

Jaguh: This is the only way BN can win voters. Where else in the world can a ruling party do this except in Malaysia?

Malaysia today is like a poorly managed company, with the management misusing the company's funds. The shareholders should sack the management, and bring in a new a one, and hopefully see change.

2lan: Bribe, bribe, bribe; why use such policies to attract voters unless money is the only language BN understands?

My club received RM2,000 for attending BN's Chinese New Year party. Is that supposed to change our minds (about supporting BN)? It only confirms what we know - that BN is careless with public funds.

Maybe it's a case of ‘one for you and 10 for them'? Only a corrupt body can dispense money so freely.

Malaysiawatch4: What's the point of BR1M when RM500 granted by the PM has resulted in an increased debt burden of more than RM5,000 for every man, woman and child since he came to office?

Ghkok: Our federal debt is targeted to reach RM1 trillion by 2020. The federal government is borrowing like crazy. But borrowing from where?

The EPF (Employees Provident Fund) is one major source of borrowing. So while the government is frantically giving out BR1M to some citizens, it is frantically borrowing money from, who else, the citizens themselves.

Giudice: Anyone can give handouts when it doesn't involve one's own money. The question is, can one do it without at the same time looting from the government's coffers and in fact, increasing the coffers?

BN evidently cannot do so. I am confident however Pakatan Rakyat can. Or at least they should be given the chance to show that they can.

Hermit: Najib is conditioning the poor Malaysians to become beggars. Giving RM500 per year is equivalent to giving about RM40 a month or about RM1.30 per day. In fact, beggars in town are getting more than that from good-hearted Malaysians.

Anonymous #10786680 : It is hard for a family of three to survive on less than RM1,000 a month today. We must admit that BR1M does go some way in helping the poor.

However, Malaysians understand how defeating handouts eventually will be. It breeds dependence, laziness and complacency.

We have to wean Malaysians off that but first, we must practise an economics of stewardship i.e. the nation's leaders must accept the responsibility of being the stewards of what is God's resources in the nation, and not turn it into the economics of privilege and exploitation.

Turning our nation around must begin with a change of government followed by years of governmental discipline to instill self-reliance in all Malaysians, but with large servings of government assistance in the beginning, slowly easing as the need for subsidies/handouts lessen.

The role of helping the less fortunate should then be taken up by the private sector as we all practise the economics of stewardship, sharing with the poor what we have in surplus.

Hmmmmmmmm: BN leaders say they are concerned about the high cost of living? But they are the cause of it.

RM40Million: Najib, you should go and honour your promises to the 40,000 bank workers; you have betrayed the trust the National Union of Banking Employees (Nube) once placed on you.

Francis_14a3: If you give money, I would take. But if you ask me to vote for you, I would think many times. As of now, there is no chance for me and my family to vote for you.

I want to continue to give Pakatan a strong voice, if possible to win this GE13, so that I can possibly enjoy the good times ahead.

John 3:16: Najib stressed that the BR1M is not a vote-buying exercise but a form of targeted subsidy. Yeah right, and my grandmother remained a virgin till the day she died.

Better My: The only to negate this RM500 + RM1,200 (if BN is elected) handout, in which many clearly perceive as brides, is for Pakatan to match it.

I hope this conditional matching of handout total RM1,700 by Pakatan is clearly communicated to all grassroots doers, and grassroots to the public 24/7 till May 5.

It is favourable for Pakatan for the needy to know that they two bites at the cherry on RM500, one they had received from Umno, and another RM500 they will received under Pakatan, after it wins. Vote BN or Pakatan, they get further RM1,200.

Cogito Ergo Sum: I did not get the BR1M, yet I got the above letter. So it seems someone has played plum-pudding with the PM's coffers.

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