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Why Ras Adiba Gets Help But Not The Poor

The national unity and social development minister, Datin Siti Zahara Sulaiman, tells us the National Welfar Foundation donates RM5,000 to the former TV newscaster, Ras Adiba, but denies them to the poor who sought help for urgent medical treatment. The poor did not follow procedure. Nor did Ras Adiba. But she did not need to since, as the minister explained, the NWF donation was
not on need but on ministerial discretion as a "token gesture of support. And that overrides all else. She does not say why the same discretion is not applied when the poor turn to the NWF for aid. What "token gesture of support" does Datin Siti Zahara talk of? Ras Adiba did what the poor did, admit herself to a private hospital. She did not apply for aid, she would not have qualified, as the poor are not, so why this special "token gesture of support"?

The poor cannot benefit because the NWF imposes impossible conditions they cannot fulfil in the frightening state of mind they are in. Every parent is panic stricken when this happens. But rules are rules. The poor must first obtain a letter from a government hospital that it cannot treat it, and ask that the child be taken to a private hospital. "Only applications with letters of certification from government hospitals will be entertained, and not from private hospitals," he said. Bureaucracy satisfied, the NWF would consider the application sympathetically. By the time, the patient could well be dead. But if it is poor Ras Adiba, of course different rules apply. Then the minister steps in, gives a "token gesture of support".

Datin Siti Zahrah must explain now why she does not use her ministerial discretion in every case. And how many times this discretion is used. In any case, she should know how difficult it is to get that letter from a government hospital. Especially if they are poor. For someone who does not go to hospitals regularly, he is lost if he comes in in an emergency. And face the run around, because the staff invariably does not know what needs to be done either. Often, if there is an officer in charge, he is either at "mesyuarat" (meetings) or "minum teh" (drinking tea) or "cuti" (on leave), that nothing can be done. Even when you get him, he is not helpful or accommodating to your request, unless the usual consideration beyond what is required is proferred. Or is Datin Siti Zaharah telling us this disretion is only for the likes of Ras Adiba, whose venture into seeking public support has all the elements of a scam. She underwent a surgical procedure, not surgery; the difference in her case was as wide as between a surgical procedure as lancing a boil and open heart surgery. So could Datin Siti Zaharah also explain why she exercised her discretion to make "token gesture of support" in the absence of any medical report?

Instead of streamlining the procedure that the NWF would concentrate on the poor seeking medical help, she blames it on the poor seeking help for not understanding the rules her own ministry is often unaware of. But Datin Siti Zaharah is of the view the poor is out to cheat the government. The poor does not discuss disclose they have sought help from the media when they approach the NWF for help. "They were probably hoping for more attention to their plight and for getting more money," she says. The sums needed are in the tens of thousands of ringgit, occasionally in the hundreds of thousands, and all the NWF would give is a token of a possibly ten thousand ringgit. What is the patient to do? Hope that this miraculously would cover all expenses? Or wait to die, grateful the NWF gave a donation that ensures he does?

What is remarkable in what she said is that few knew, even those who are not as poor, that it existed. Not even the newspapers, which carry these appeals for funds, for it they did, they could also helped the poor seeking funds with the paper and be the intermediary. But if you do not know there is the National Welfare Foundation, how do you apply for it? Ras Adiba need not apply: the fund sought her. Is she then saying that poor glitterati needing surgical procedure in foreign countries, especially when that could be done locally, would be helped whether they need it or not? Or the NWF would come in with a contribution if the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, calls on the patient? Datin Siti Zaharah must explain, clearly and unequivocally, that if the NWF does not help the poor who cannot afford medical treatment, why it should not be disbanded, and other more practical measures sought.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my