Issue of the missing poor

The columnist argues whether it makes any sense for the hardcore poor to apply for e-Kasih programme online. — Bernama photo

THE need for a complete list of names and addresses of the poorest of the poor in Sarawak has been there for a long time, but the collection of data has become problematic. It seems to defy solution, despite the effort on the part of the authorities to make a full inventory of  the poor in the state. Every one of them is entitled to regular welfare assistance from the government, until they can fend for themselves.

The impression one gets from reading the various statements made recently by the Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing Minister Datuk Fatimah Abdullah is that there’s lack of manpower at the level of Welfare Department in most districts. There is not enough staff to go out to look out for the very poor in every district, if the poor do not report personally to the office.

According to the minister, only 56,431 people have been registered as recipients of aid. From January to May this year, RM75,291,800 million have been spent on welfare programmes.

Fatimah is not happy with this number because many of the needy are still out there, missing out on the goodies. Not that there is any intention on the part of the authorities to discriminate against them – not at all – but because the state is so large and its population sparsely scattered. The whereabouts of the real poor people are thus simply unknown.

In the state with only 2.5 million people, that begs the question – why is it impossible to have a complete list of the hardcore poor all these years?

There are two ministries of welfare in the country – the federal and the state. Are they not working together in solving a common problem – hardcore poverty among the people?  Or have they been using different sets of data or even definitions of ‘poverty’; therefore of eligibility for welfare aid?

If this state of affairs exists, no wonder that one set of poor people have been left out. The other set will get help all the time – possibly getting it twice.

The so-called e-Kasih system – its grand name is the ‘National Poverty Data Bank’ – is useless as far as the elderly citizens and people in the longhouses and ‘kampungs’ (villages) are concerned.

They have to apply for assistance online!

More question-begging –  if you can afford a computer, then you are no longer eligible for welfare assistance, I’d say!

The town poor are visible

In Sarawak, the poor in big towns and cities are easily reachable and very visible. They are in the squatters, or in the slums. But the situation outside the cities and big towns is different. To register the poor in the 5,000 settlements and longhouses across the state requires some organising because of the distance and remoteness from the nearest Welfare Office.

Most of these remote places are more accessible nowadays, if there is the will to reach the poor. Funds can be made available if there is a sustainable programme to collect and update data on rural poverty.

The problems of transport and even funds for travelling are not unsurmountable, if additional approaches are employed.

For instance, regarding the lack of manpower, the following organisations may help and they are asked to help nicely – non-governmental organisations (NGOS), academic researchers, tour operators, Flying Doctor Service; district hospitals and clinics, as well as the Sarawak Rangers Veteran Association (SRVA) Baru.

NGOS are active on the ground, especially those advocating preservation of the environment and Native Customary Rights (NCR) land, but they have been treated with suspicion by the authorities – even worse, as anti-national elements. Work with them, not alienate them as they are working at grassroots level directly with all sorts of people without the benefits of government facilities such as boats or vehicles, as well as without living allowances.

They keep the data of the poor to themselves for their own use.

They stay longer at any particular place to allow them more time to study the welfare conditions, first-hand, of the people including the very poor of the villages and longhouses. Those who are sick, invalid and bedridden, those who are blind, deaf or are starving, do not speak up when government officials are around.

The government officials may not have time to see them personally or even take down their names and other personal problems. All this task is left to the spokesman of the longhouse or the ‘kampung’ – often the ‘Tua Kampong’ (TK) or ‘Tuai Rumah’ (TR) himself. They have committees (JKKK) to keep data; but how many of them regularly update their village profiles?

The less-poor have been registered as recipients of welfare aid anyway but the real hardcore poor rely on the TK/TR to speak for them. In many cases, the chiefs are not proactive; they do not even know how many people are ‘under’ them. The population of each place is often a guess work.

In many cases which I personally know, several longhouse profiles are not being updated regularly because there’s no computer in those houses; even if there is one, there is no electricity to power the gadget. No typewriter. People don’t write by hand anymore; hence, the problem with reaching out to and registering the poor as potential recipients of the welfare aid.

A minister, if there isn’t one, in the Chief Minister’s Office should be given this job of coordinating the collection of data and producing an update and complete data base to the Welfare department, indeed to the Planning Units – in Kuala Lumpur and Kuching.

By now, there must be a complete list of the BRIM (1Malaysia People’s Aid) recipients. From this, the Welfare Department can get information about the poor too.

Under the MyBeras programme, there must be a list of potential rice recipients. There are some 27,700 hardcore poor households in the state. Are these people the same recipients of BRIM?

The list must be the same, but do those names also appear on the list kept by the state Welfare department?

SRVAB

The Sarawak Rangers Veteran Association Baru in Sarawak is looking for servicemen who have rendered valuable service to the nation in times of trouble. They cannot all be traced but are believed to be alive, but with a meagre pension or totally without any. They don’t speak up – they only knew how to fight to defend their country in times of war.

The Welfare Ministry should get a list of the old soldiers and their families for the purpose of giving aid from the Veteran Affairs outfit of the Armed Forces. There may also be former Border Scouts who have families.

Who cares for them now? They cared for us during the Confrontation when the security of our nation was at stake.

There are many others, even individuals, who are willing to help with information on the poorest of the poor in Sarawak. They would be willing to give information at their disposal if there is a system of channelling information to the Welfare Department.

My hope and prayer is that one day – not by 2020 as envisaged – we do not need to draw any list of the hardcore poor any more. It should be shorter by the day. Eradication of poverty was the purpose of the affirmative action or positive discrimination under the New Economic Policy (1970).

In four years’ time, the country is supposed to have achieved the status where every family is supposed to earn a monthly income of RM4,000.

If the list of the poorest of the poor is still incomplete, how will we describe the situation then; other than to say ‘Jauh Pak Awi’.

No way!

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