Malaysians are lazy and expect handouts, says Dr Mahathir

Mohd Farhan Darwis Mohd Farhan Darwis Updated 5 years ago · Published on 25 Nov 2018 4:42PM · 19 Comments

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad says that other poorer Southeast Asian countries will soon overtake Malaysia in growth as their people were more hardworking than Malaysians, who just want an easy life. – The Malaysian Insight pic, November 25, 2018.

PRIME Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today said the country’s economy would soon be overtaken by its poorer neighbours because Malaysians would rather look for handouts than work hard.

Dr Mahathir said many Malaysians have become dependent on financial handouts like the Bantuan Rakyat 1 Malaysia (BR1M) of the previous Barisan Nasional government.

“We bring in foreign workers to do the jobs Malaysians do not want to do.

“The government collects taxes and levies from these foreign workers only to give to these Malaysians who think they have disabilities as financial assistance,” he said when opening Dash Resort in Langkawi today.

Dr Mahathir predicted that fellow Southeast Asian country Vietnam, which had been ravaged by war, would soon overtake Malaysia in the economic ranking because they have a lot of hardworking people.

“Vietnam will pull ahead of Malaysia because its people are very diligent.

“In Malaysia, people don’t want to work because the government gives them money.”

Earlier in August this year, the government began weaning the people off BR1M by reducing the aid amount before stopping it altogether.

The BR1M was started by the administration of former prime minister Najib Razak in 2012 ostensibly to assist people in the lower income groups.

When tabling the 2019 national budget, Pakatan Harapan announced a living allowance assistance of RM5 billion for 4.1 million households.

The amount is lower than the RM6.8 billion allocated by the BN to BR1M for distribution to 7.2 million recipients.

Earlier in his address, the prime minister also said the government should not be doing any commercial activities and should leave the business of doing business to the private sector.

He said the primary duty of the government is to pass laws and enforce them.

“The government has no expertise to do business and we will lose money. The private sector knows better how to make money. They have the ideas,” Dr Mahathir said.

He said the government would not make it difficult for them to do business because at the end of the day, “we will get 36% of what you make”.

“That’s why we want people to be successful in business. We do not invest a single sen but we get 36% in return.” – November 25, 2018.

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Comments

  • Be specific Mahatir. Tell it to the face that you want this message t be told. Not all Malaysians are lazy and it is the nons who have prop up the economy and very little or insignificant handouts has been given. They do not need it at all to survive and even how poor they are they will work it out. Not those who are screaming and crying their special rights must not be violated or they goes amok and yet it is only specificall to thosein UmnoPAS .. Call the spade a spade please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Posted 5 years ago by Lee Lee · Reply

    • Do not incite hatred brother....the message is loud & clear....we have a new government....let's work together....

      Posted 5 years ago by Hantoo Blacklord · Reply

    • Old-timer elders still living today can tell younger Malaysians that the unsatisfactory scenario painted above by Dr. Mahathir happened because the Umno-BN govt of yesteryear practically destroyed our flourishing English-based education system given to us by the British at the time of Merdeka independence in 1957 by downgrading English & replacing it with mediocre(?) Bahasa. (British-ruled Sri Lanka also made this same mistake by preferring their local language over English, with their 1948 independence, & sadly they also suffer today.) DO ASK English-educated Dr. Mahathir, who entered Umno politics in 1946 and went on to become Education Minister in 1974 about what I have posted here.. Does he agree with me that a very terrible mistake was made by downgrading English in the 196O's? DID NOT THE MALAYS SUFFER THE MOST AS A RESULT? DROPPING OUT OF SCHOOL INTO DRUG ADDICTION, ETC?..

      Posted 5 years ago by MELVILLE JAYATHISSA · Reply

    • Nothing racial. It is stating a fact or we will be lost in wilderness of confusion. Lets settle the core issues inorder to move. It is always hypocrisy that creates the commotions and racial imballance.

      Posted 5 years ago by Lee Lee · Reply

  • Tun Statement is General is Targeted to those who are lazy if you are in that Category if you are not No Worries we all know there are hard work people and the lazy ones who are they!

    Posted 5 years ago by Danial Abdullah · Reply

  • Vietnamese learn science and technology whereas Malays learn religion so that they can graduate out to talk nonsense like Hadi Otak Dibawah.

    Posted 5 years ago by Jackal Way · Reply

  • Malaysians should go learn a skill. Be apprentice to electricians, mechanics, plumbers, contractors etc. once you have a skill nobody can take it away from you. Eventually you can start your own business and life gets better from there. The problem is a lot of them are too lazy to learn anything.

    Posted 5 years ago by Lily Cheong · Reply

    • When the Chinese purchase a house, they know they need to pay installments for the bank loan. They work towards repaying all that.

      Our other friends want to buy the house, they are frightened off hearing the instalment amount. This is a very strange phenomenon.

      Posted 5 years ago by Tanahair Ku · Reply

  • By tradition, the Chinese has no reasons to be lazy. They encourage each other to work for raining days. The environment facing them is conducive to prompting them to try new ventures. The resilience to failures is remarkable. The 5000 year old tradition has instilled in them virtues unsurpassed by many others.

    Posted 5 years ago by Tanahair Ku · Reply

    • People are only hardworking when they are of migrant stock. You have to stop spouting rubbish. China is filled with a lot of unproductive people especially since the Communist Party took power. Their anger at life in general now is a result of the unprecedented opening of markets and the average worker having to work for their wages. Prior to that, all workers were paid the same and many shirked on their duties in the factories there. You work because you don't have privileges. So for those of us Malaysians working in Singapore does it makes us even more unsurpassed in virtue? Tolol! We are here because we had the opportunity to leave Malaysia.

      Posted 5 years ago by K Pop · Reply

  • The non cannot afford to be lazy as they have no one to turn to. We are losing out to many other poorer Asean countries right now. I believe in a very near future even Myanmar will be ahead of us if we still have those retards shouting about special rights every day.

    Posted 5 years ago by Chee yee ng · Reply

  • Yes..this is a fact...Malaysians really need to buck up on their services and be more hardworking if wanna compare with Korea, Taiwan or even Vietnam...

    Posted 5 years ago by Will Be Humble · Reply

  • Everyone knows if you teach them how to fish they will be independent irrespective of hand outs, if you feed them they can last a day. Most Malaysians just want to be fed instead of working hard for the money. That's why we have 3million foreign workers who are prepared to do the work locals abhorred. They prefer aircon rooms then toil and dirty their hands. The time will come when we export workers to our neighbours if the mentality do not change.

    Posted 5 years ago by Justin Leno · Reply

  • I think that the many Malaysians who are actively discriminated against due to their ethnic origin would be very annoyed by this statement. They only want a level player field not handouts. But a law to protect them against discrimination is denied them due to fears that those who benefit from discrimination might lose their privileges. Sickening and the government must begin to counter the false claims that discrimination protects Islam for example.

    Posted 5 years ago by Malaysia New hope · Reply

  • I think that the many Malaysians who are actively discriminated against due to their ethnic origin would be very annoyed by this statement. They only want a level player field not handouts. But a law to protect them against discrimination is denied them due to fears that those who benefit from discrimination might lose their privileges. Sickening and the government must begin to counter the false claims that discrimination protects Islam for example.

    Posted 5 years ago by Malaysia New hope · Reply

  • IF Malaysians are lazy, so how can we managed to be the Asian Tiger ?!

    Posted 5 years ago by Mohd Nordin · Reply

  • IF Malaysians are lazy, so how can we managed to be the Asian Tiger ?!

    Posted 5 years ago by Mohd Nordin · Reply

  • This is the outcome you get when people are awarded the "special rights".

    Posted 5 years ago by Tanahair Ku · Reply

  • A lot of these special rights receivers are very ungrateful. After getting the hand- outs, they tend to hit back hard, eg, icerd.

    Posted 5 years ago by Richard Foo · Reply