SINGLE mother Kamsiah Noor used the RM400 she received from her MP’s welfare programme to buy asthma medication.

The money also helped the 49-year-old with the monthly grocery bill. 

“I have asthma, sometimes I have to spend around RM300 on my medicines each month. I also have the nebuliser machine at home, which I bought using zakat money for about RM250. 

“But every two or three days, I have to buy the Ventolin Nebules… I buy one or two sticks only because they are quite expensive,” she said. 

“I had to stop selling nasi lemak for a week now because I don’t have enough money to buy the ingredients. If I can continue my business, at least I can save around RM20-30 daily. 

“Now, I have to ask my neighbours for some rice because I just don’t have money,” she said, adding that one of her children, who works at a factory, also helps to support the family. 

The mother of five, who runs a nasi lemak stall at her Desa Mentari flat, said she applied to be one of the Bulan Kebajikan recipients because she did not have a stable income.

Bulan Kebajikan is a welfare programme initiated by Kelana Jaya MP Wong Chen for the urban poor in the constituency.

However, the programme has been suspended. Kamsiah said she was informed of it by a community leader.

“Families like mine, we really need that kind of aid, as I have no other income. We have been really prudent in our spending, but every month I must pay RM550 for rent and RM70 for my son’s transport to school. All this doesn’t include utility bills and my medicines.”

Anitha Manidas, 49, who works as a receptionist at a media company in Petaling Jaya, said the programme benefitted her as a single mother with two children aged 11 and 16. 

“I don’t own property like a house, or have savings and all that. I’m the sole breadwinner in the family,” she said. 

Anitha, who had just moved out of Desa Mentari because she found the environment unhealthy for her growing children, said the RM400 she received from the programme last year helped to pay her outstanding bills. 

“Now we are staying in another flat in Seri Setia. I cannot afford a terrace house. Even now, I’m struggling to pay RM750 monthly. 

“The aid really reduced my burden and I don’t know what is going to happen now. I hope they will continue the programme, especially with Deepavali coming up.”

The Selangor government froze Wong’s Mesra Rakyat spending in June last year after an audit.

Wong had made public his grouses about the state’s audit process and the findings on his office’s community spending, claiming the audit was conducted “without due process” and six of its conclusions were “wrong, baseless and trivial”.

He said the freeze had resulted in the termination of the welfare programme.

Selangor Menteri Besar Mohamed Azman Ali had ticked off the MP for protesting. He said all MPs, who received funding will be audited, regardless of their political affiliation. 

Wong said the welfare programme has been in existence since he took office and that most of the RM250,000 allocated to a Selangor MP went to his constituents because an overwhelming number of them were the hardcore urban poor.

According to Wong, the audit report did not recommend the freezing of his community spending. Instead, it proposed two minor recommendations instructing his office to prepare an annual community spending plan in advance and to spend more on “projek kecil”.

Wong said small projects such as road and drain repairs could be carried out by the local council.

“For ‘projek kecil’, you have to hire a contractor – some contractors are bad and some are good. And even when the contractor is good, they are still going to make a 30% profit, because that’s the market rate. 

“These small projects are quite irrelevant for an MP. Fundamentally, why would I give RM3,000 for someone to make a profit when I can give the RM3,000 directly to the poor?”

Wong said there was no basis to suspend his community spending and it was hurting his constituents. 

“We generally do not believe in handouts but if you want me to run a big social programme, such as for women empowerment, it will cost me around RM10 million. It requires a big budget and I need to hire two more people to monitor the programme.

“But if you give me RM250,000, the easiest solution for me, with my limited staff and high number of interns, is to hold the Bulan Kebajikan. It’s not a question of principle, it’s about what we can do with the little money that we have to distribute and doing it in a way that feels morally correct.”

He said the aid was disbursed after exhaustive interviews with the applicants, a process that would eliminate nearly half of the 700-800 applications.

“It’s very important that it be known that the money never comes to my office. There is no physical money that comes to my office. The process is like this: a person applies for the Bulan Kebajikan, we interview the person and sign the form and the relevant documents to be submitted to the Land Office.”

He said the Land Office would go through the administration process and issue the cheque in the name of the recipient once everything is cleared. His office would then do the needful to record the aid.

“They don’t give me money and I don’t handle money and cheques because it is paid to the recipient. That is the system. The system is actually fool-proof. There is no corruption, wastage or mismanagement,” he said, adding that around 400 families are affected by the cut. 

Wong said the latest development on the matter was a reply from the state treasury chief assistant financial officer Mohd Hasry Nor Mohd, who said the matter was under review.

“What I need to know is very clear – where does the power of all these officers come from? Because the audit report doesn’t recommend anything like freezing our community spending. 

“I have met Azmin in Parliament. We had a chat and I said you have to do something about your officers. And he said he will look into it.

“I just don’t want them to punish the poor,” he said, while expressing confidence that the matter would be resolved in the next few months. 

The Malaysian Insight was unable to get a response from the Selangor treasury. – August 5, 2017.