A Budget for Poor Lazarus?

Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, living in luxury every day. A certain beggar, named Lazarus, was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. Yes, even the dogs came and licked his sores.

It happened that the beggar died, and that he was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried. In Hades, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his bosom. He cried and said, "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue! For I am in anguish in this flame."

But Abraham said, "Son, remember that you, in your lifetime, received your good things, and Lazarus, in the same way, bad things. But now here he is comforted and you are in anguish. Besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that those who want to pass from here to you are not able, and that none may cross over from there to us."

He said, "I ask you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house; for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, so they won't also come into this place of torment."

But Abraham said to him, "They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them."

He said, "No, father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent."

He said to him, "If they don't listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rises from the dead."
– Luke 16:19–31, World English Bible

Budget 2011 was never a people’s budget. It’s really for “a certain rich” strata of society who has all the fine things in life. Their everyday wants and needs have been taken care off by the numerous “blood sucking” systems without a care for tomorrow. I think we can recognize these groups of people in Malaysia. Can you name some of them?

Not only are they well connected but they are also well protected. From the Executive arm to the AG chambers the powers that be continues to feed them thru various means (nepotism, cronyism, back door appointments, money politics, patronage system, corruption etc) and gets the rich to become richer & bolder but the poor poorer.

The high society of today continues to usurp and be blind to the plight of modern day Lazarus and their intention is to grab whatever that is left from the men and women on the street. Look at PLUS Highway & EPF, 100 storey Heritage Tower & PNB etc.

We could have used this money to build low cost houses for the needy or give scholarship to our poor students. This is what Affirmative Action really is!!!

But as we can see, most of the allocation in this Budget will be or has been given to their families and the well connected cronies of the powerful.

At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter what happens to Lazarus or what he feels as he is always kept at the wayside and fringes of society –“ was laid at the gate.” He has neither a voice nor connection to pull any strings except to wait till kingdom comes!

Today’s the rakyat were only given “crumbs” from the budget which doesn’t make much of a difference in our lives.

The Lazarus of today are left to fend for themselves and were in no way taken into account in the BN government plans to become a high income country whatever that means to you.

Who are the modern day Lazarus? Where is he/she today? They are considered to be the Least, the Last and the Lost of our society.

In this parable the rich had no name given by Jesus except Lazarus. Do you know who are they or their names?

And do you know what their daily struggles are like? Is it the dubious inflation rate of 2-4%, high cost of living & food, sense of alienation, hopelessness for the future, children’s education, medical, transportation, bills to pay etc. 

Somehow it bothers all of us that this budget gave low or no priority to the majority of people who are struggling for their day to day bread. It’s never a rakyat’s budget after all. It’s a complete farce to all thinking and feeling Malaysians!

But does that mean it’s wrong to be rich? Absolutely no. If not, what is Abraham doing in heaven with Lazarus? As Scriptures says, Abraham was a very rich men with livestock, silver and gold (Gen 13:2).

Does the end justify the means? Well, this is something for all of us to reflect upon.

Mahathir's Dilemma

Let me first say that many people your age would be seeking to quiet down and enjoy the remaining balance of your life with their love ones. But somehow I find this a complete surprise as this is not the case with you.

Even at this age you are able to shake the government to its core. Look at Pak Lah and now Najib and his 1Malaysia program.

And I guess you are doing this coz something is bothering you. We know what is it but it would be great if we could hear it from the horses’ mouth as you claim you are “past self-interest” and all.

Anyhow, back to your latest venom on “the country we all love.”

Dr. M, you said that we Malaysians don’t understand 1 Malaysia. Do you really think that we are such dumb fools not able to comprehend this slogan? For your info, it simply means Unity. In our context it’s Unity in Diversity!

That’s it. Now the next question is do we need 1Malaysia? Of course we do. It’s precisely because of people like you and those in the primitive group Perkasa whom you are the spiritual advisor to.

Dr. M, we need 1Malaysia to work for our children’s future. But somehow you and Perkasa think otherwise. You and your proxy Muhyiddin think it will not work. You and some bigoted and racist civil servants feel that 1Malaysia should fail.

Why? Are you afraid of loosing something? Seriously, tell us what is it.

Then you claim that the Malays have a different understanding of 1Malaysia than the rest of the non-Malays.

You claim that the Malays wants us to adopt BM as our national language. Who hasn’t? Even the East Malaysians with a variety of their indigenous languages has done that. In addition, you want the non-Malays to give up their mother tongue and more importantly their education system as well.

In your own words the Chinese civilization system has been around for four thousand years and this has made them more resilient and knowledgeable. And now you want to destroy a part of that very fundamental institution (education) which has sustained the Chinese over the centuries? What are you up to?

Well, it is not the non-Malays who don’t want to learn BM. It is you who disallowed the use of BM in schools as far as teaching of Maths and Science was concerned.

It just doesn’t make sense what you are saying now and did the last time you were a PM of “the country we all love.”

Well, we Malaysians know very well that you are a flip-flop men too. On one hand you could be preaching about Bangsa Malaysia but on the other you could be talking about Malay supremacy with ease! And that hasn’t stop since your Malay Dilemma days.

Dr. M, your blog says that the non-Malays interprete 1Malaysia as amending the constitution. Give us a break! It was you who have amended the constitution many times without fail when you were in power all those 22 years. Did the opposition ever tried to amend their state constitution that they were controlling? Not at all! Did they ever said they were going to? NO!!!

It was you who amended the powers of the rulers not once but twice. And now you are talking about the Malays loosing power.

I believe no non-Malays wants to amend Article 153 in our constitution. I think it’s there to fulfill a purpose and ensure that economically we Malaysians will have a fair share of the economic pie and stand on our feet. Did you do that when you were in power for 22 years as a dictator? Obviously you didn’t do enough so that you could harp on this issue over and over again.

And instead you fed and fattened your cronies like the cows of Bashan! And the poor who really needed the 30% help did not get to see it. What happen to the RM54 billion bumi share which at present is left with RM2 billion only? Surely, you would know something about this. Why the silence, Dr. M?

In addition, most of our national coffers fall victim to your cronies’ uncontrolled hunger for greed i.e. EPF, Socso etc. Under your premiership corruption and money politics become the order of the day. As you went to create UMNO Baru, you also created a new political culture which was based on greed and patronage. And this system of governance (read:Mahathirism) is still in play today especially thru one of your boys Najib.

Please do not hide behind the façade of Malay unity to protect your self interest or the interest of your cronies. And I think you need to grow up and behave as an elderly politician. Look at Tunku and learn from our Bapa Kemerdekaan.

Stop the nonsense and allow us to forge our way ahead for the “the country we all love.”

We could use less people like you to become Bangsa Malaysia. If only you could let us be!