Najib out of touch, no right to give financial advice, say youth

Low Han Shaun Ravin Palanisamy Low Han Shaun, Ravin Palanisamy Updated 8 years ago · Published on 22 Feb 2018 9:00PM · 6 Comments

PRIME Minister Najib Razak is disconnected from the challenges and sentiments of the younger generation and is in no position to dispense advice on their spending, several Malaysian youths said today.

In a live question-and-answer session earlier today, Najib said Malaysian youths should spend within their means, saying some could not differentiate between living costs, and lifestyle spending.

“It just shows how out of touch he is with the youths,” 21-year-old Jen Hui Chong told The Malaysian Insight.

“He sounds like he assumes youths are brats; that we don’t know how to live within our means.

“Given the average wage is RM2,000 and with the high living cost and housing costs, I wouldn’t think about living beyond my means let alone live comfortably.

“I would still have to be dependent on my parents to live sufficiently, not comfortably,” she said.

The law student said it was unfair of Najib to brand all youths as not knowing how to spend.

“I recognise a lot of economic factors play into high living costs, but denying or painting the picture youths are complaining only because they don’t know how to budget is ignorant and seems to be the go-to response of the baby boomer generation,” she said.

In the online programme, Najib had cited an example of spending RM800 dining at a Japanese restaurant, versus eating at a 24-hour Mamak eatery.

The example, said 23-year-old Jean Vaneisha Ravindran, was out of touch with the spending habits of most youth today.

“I get anxiety if the entire bill reaches RM200,” she said.

“A splurge for us would be Nando’s. Some of us would even consider Domino’s a treat,” she said, referring to two popular fast-food outlets.

“University students who live on campuses speak about eating Maggi (instant noodles), eggs and kicap (sauce) for months.

“Don’t you think if we had the money to just indulge on better food, we would?” she said.

Jean who lives in Subang Jaya said Najib should acknowledge the problem of rising cost of living and how it affects the youths via his policies before advising them.

“Increasing minimum wage will increase spending power. Provide subsidies for living essentials so money can be better used elsewhere,” she said.

Rizal Rozhan, 26 from Petaling Jaya said Najib was “talking about his lifestyle” when advising youths on matters of expenditure.

“Najib comes from a privileged family, the son of a prime minister, receiving a high-quality education from a young age.

“Not only is he the least qualified person to give advice on this issue, he was never accustomed to the economic suffering when he was a youth.

“It is almost unheard of that the ‘average’ Malaysian youth spends RM1,000 per person in a Japanese restaurant in a hotel. He was probably talking about his lifestyle,” Rizal said.

Rizal, who is from Sabah and is working in Petaling Jaya, admitted while he agreed youths today needed deeper financial education, the government needed to acknowledge the fact that “youths are jobless, not earning as much as they should, suffer from the mismatch of skills and job opportunities”.

“So, regardless of their living costs and lifestyle spending, financial literacy won’t be able to save youths, because youths are already plagued by other issues,” he said. – February 22, 2018.

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Comments

  • Like Harvey Weinstein teaching how to be gentleman toward women.

    Posted 8 years ago by Bigjoe Lam · Reply

  • Penyamun mo1 is having mamak meals while our youths are enjoying quinos,quinos will spare u from hypertension and high cholesterol while mamak meals will kill u faster

    Posted 8 years ago by Leslie Chan · Reply

  • Practice what you preached
    Begin with your Wife

    Posted 8 years ago by Harytan456 Tan · Reply

  • Malaysian Youth is dead wrong - they must take lesson from Najib. Who convinced a wealth arab to contribute RM2.6 billion. Who appointed Malaysia Top Financial Panther Jho Low. Who appointed Malaysia Top Corrupt Politician to lead FELDA. Who bought Melbourne apartment at double the market price.

    Posted 8 years ago by Chris Ng · Reply

  • Even mamak is kind of luxury food nowadays with graduate's average salary of RM2000/month.

    Posted 8 years ago by Jack Jusoh · Reply

  • It seem like PM is not in good health, last time we heard that former attorney general also resigned due to poor health
    So PM should follow the same principle.

    Posted 8 years ago by Saf S · Reply