KUALA TERENGGANU, 23 February: RM41.60 is enough to feed a family for a week, according to Prime Minister Najib Razak. In a speech boasting about the impact of the BR1M government welfare assistance program, Najib said that receipients of the RM500 aid would be able to buy food for one year.
“We have calculated that on average, a family can buy groceries such as 10kg of rice, 5kg of cooking oil and other essentials per month with RM41.60. That means they have enough to buy food for 12 months with the RM500 BR1M,” he told the crowd when officiating the Terengganu state level “Program Jelajah Janji Ditepati” in Dataran Syahbandar, as reported by news agency Bernama.
Based on Najib’s calculations, each family would have a household daily food budget of RM1.40.
Rising food prices
Netizens have ridiculed Najib for his comment, calling him out of touch with the actual cost of living struggles faced by ordinary citizens. Threads in the popular forum lowyat.net are discussing Najib’s statement, juxtaposing it together with actual food prices.
A forum user calling himeself “t3arsCulprit” pointed out that the cheapest price for a 10kg packet of rice costs RM20 and a 5kg bottle of oil cost RM15.
User “scorptim” went further to divide the amount of rice that an individual could afford to consume within a month with a 10kg limit and three daily meals, working out to be 111g of rice per meal.
Users “Mie131085”, “exBlasTer” and “Acher13” also doubted that the RM500 would be sufficient to cover living expenses for a year.
Illogical calculations
Meanwhile, PAS’s Parit Buntar member of parliament Mujahid Yusof Rawa called Najib’s calculation “illogical”, pointing out that the threshold level for poverty is a household income of RM1,200 a month. “It’s hilarious, whether Najib said it wrongly or he said it unconsciously, but he was wide awake,” Mujahid said.
DAP’s MP for Bukit Bendera, Liew Chin Tong called Najib “a political prince” who has no understanding of the lives and aspirations of the ordinary Joe. Liew said Najib’s statement showed that he has no inkling of what the people endure in an economy that doesn’t help the bottom 60 per cent.
In his speech, Najib added that this showed that Barisan is a government that looks after the people. As such, he stressed that the people should now realise the truth and reject the opposition coalition.
More than 20,000 people attended the event, including Najib’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor and Terengganu Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Said. -The Rocket
He’s what we call “sek-mai ngm-chee mai-gah” (eat rice but don’t know the price of rice). Of course, everything is provided for him (with our money!!!) so he doesn’t have to shop for groceries, do marketing, pay for petrol, buy a car, a house, etc.,etc.,etc…. Every single cent he gets goes right into his giant vault and his wife’s, children’s too. RM500 is not even enough to pay for 1 breakfast for him & his family.
THE MOST RIDICULOUS AND STUPID PM IN THE WORLD!!!
Foo Wymin; Can’t help it but to agree with you,obviously this guy has lost touch with reality,change before it is too late.
I’m prepared to come out rm500 from my own pocket if Najib can send anyone from his cabinet to demo to us!…Best if he shows us himself. .
You forgot to mention the way Najib funded/financed this generous spendings –not from his own/his father/BN/UMNO’s purse –but by a sudden jump of total national debts of 250% to GDP ,the highest as shown in Chart2 “4 GMO
Feeding the Dragon: Why China’s Credit System Looks Vulnerable – January 2013 Exhibit 2China Is Heavily Indebted Relative to Emerging Peers” Source : EconomicPerspectiveIMF at https://www.gmo.com/America/CMSAttachmentDownload.aspx?target=JUBRxi51IIA6KcUdqlSIwIXyKFLDu0ahgi%2fVwwPhMBjQBiRm%2bRLnDmOmauuxY3ieIGb5rFygoEWoFXDEs8Gu%2bAyctYJBUNhP4Y3avDPBk7WUGH2FqmGe9A%3d%3d), –even higher debt ratio than the world 2/3rd richest nation Japan at just above 200% — this is the scandalous consequence of “Look-East(Japan) Policy” inherited from “2020-Vision” Mahathir — ya , learning or copying from Japan with 2 lost decades , read 1) Lost Decade (Japan)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decade_%28Japan%29 2) Lost decades The Japanese tragedy http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2012/08/lost-decades –why is our leaders (Najib/UMNO/BN or AnwarLGE/PR not addressing this “can-of-worms” BEFORE they are elected to govern come GE13? — Are we bankrupted? Learn the JapaneseWay dont/cant pay? or kick-the-can down to God knows how many future generations of our children?
Moron, the man doesn’t know how to cook at all.
Inaccurate reporting… your opening paragraph says RM41.60 is for a week, the second paragraph says it’s for a month!
However the monthly figure computes given the RM500 figure.
My advise to the PM is….
“Better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you’re a fool rather than open your mouth and prove it!”
my childrens pocket money is rm 3.00-rm 4.00 per day. how can
a family survive with rm 1.40/day. is the pm thinks that half
a cent is bigger than the bull cart wheel. i think as a malaysian we suggest he (pm) should go to the kindergarden and
learn some calculation or ask him to go shopping and buy rice,
cooking oil etc.
i think the most stupid malaysian will not agreed with his
rm 1.40/day food budget.(this is not a logic budget but to
be exact it is a stupid budget.