Relative Abundance Part 2

At the bottom, there is a schedule of expenses for school start up. The places where the materials were procured were shops in Tanah Merah and Machang (by standards of locals here are termed as supermarkets) and the wet market of Machang in Kelantan, Malaysia.

The Tanah Merah Supermarket

Other expenses for the schooling kids are the fees. This term is an anomaly for there are no longer fees for primary and secondary schools in this country. Education is free up to that level. These are actually chargeable items by the school such as for notes and examination costs. It varies from school to school. Together with the exercise books that will come to approximately RM100.00

Pocket money have to be given to the kids too. Generally RM1.00 to 2.00 per day should suffice. RM2.00 is given on days with religious classes in the afternoon known as KAFA here (Kelas Agama Fardu Ain). These afternoon class can be 3 or 4 days a week.

Government Welfare Schemes

The Government have their welfare schemes for the less fortunate too. For example KWAPM (Kumpulan Amanah Pelajar Miskin – Poor Students Trust Fund) is given at RM150 per head. That will be enough to cover the fees and the stationeries. There are no scholarships for Primary School students. For Secondary School Students there is the Biasiswa Kecil Persekutuan - Federal Minor Scholarship which amounts to RM600.00 per annum.

For the less fortunate students at the Primary School there is a before class breakfast scheme which is known as Rancangan Makanan Tambahan Sekolah (RMTS)– Schools Food Supplement Program. In this Hamzah 2 Primary School about 25% of the students received this RMTS.

Inside PM's New Jet.

Welfare & the New Malay.

The former Prime Minister used to lament that these welfare schemes produces subsidy mentality among the Malays. He also did take every opportunity to hit at the dole system in United Kingdom that produces lazy British according to him, without revealing the compulsory minimum contribution imposed and the role played by National Insurance.

The mental revolution and the New Economic Policy aimed at restructuring society has ironically produces Malays that are not poor friendly and viewed poor Malays as troubling the society. With all that had been said, the local federal government representatives here in Kelantan took every opportunity to highlight the federal government hand outs of the state's money to the poor.

This scenario does not take place in say Selangor. Kelantan is the only opposition control state for the past 16 years and the Federal Government had been trying hard to deny any state government credibility, for the party that make up the State Government is not a member of the National Front, a coalition of many parties that formed the Federal Government.

PM's new RM 200million jet.

Last year when the State’s Public Universities (IPTS) was about to be opened there was a massive jam at the Hospital University Science Malaysia (HUSM) in Kubang Kerian. Parents from all over the state was waiting for hours to hear a Federal Minister delivered his speech before collecting some RM1500.00 of State’s money to assist their children to start up at the Universities. Many felt they were being blackmailed but they played to the fiddle. After all the RM1500 per student was an advance of their loan from Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi Negara (National Higher Educational Fund), deductible in future. The organizers should have used the State Stadium, probably it would have been a much better and comfortable venue.

READ ABOUT THE RM200million new PM's jet.

For larger family relationship too, it seems that the member of a family that is least successful financially is normally marginalized. The role played by the “middle class” of the family is such that a situation is created where they will be in the good books of the more successful and resourceful members at the expense of marginalizing the least successful members of the family. Now the relationship among individuals have torn up the traditional cultural fabric of brotherly relationship and a new set of relationship based on the interest to have an opportunity for wealth and comfortable living is the new order of the day. This is the end result of the mental revolution of the post independence era of the early sixties.

It should be reminded of the less mentioned saying of Prophet Muhammad SAW that one of the signs of the nearness of the doom’s day is when the rich feel that the poor is troubling them and a burden to the society.