Story by Tanushalini Moroter
THE state government initiated the I-sejahtera programme starting from 2008 to enhance the social and economic well-being of Penangites.
The I-sejahtera programme is conducted by the state government annually for senior citizens, single mothers, the differently-abled, Years 1&4 and Forms 1 & 4 students.
Yearly, a one-off payment of RM100 is given to single mothers, the differently-abled, Year 1 & 4 and Form 1 & 4 students.
This year the one-off payment for senior citizens and the differently-abled was increased to RM130 (previously RM100).
On top of that, newly born babies are also given a one-off payment of RM200 under the “Anak Emas” programme and under the Ibita programme (financial assistance granted to students entering higher learning institutions) undergraduates receive RM1,000 (RM1,200 for those going to Sabah/Sarawak).
The senior citizen appreciation programme was introduced by the state in 2009 as a gesture of appreciation and respect as well as to honour senior citizens regardless of race, religion and political views.
Buletin Mutiara spoke to exco for Environment, Welfare and Caring Society Phee Boon Poh to find out more about the programmes to improve the quality of life of Penangites.
Eradicating hardcore poor
“To narrow the gap between the ‘have and have not’, firstly we have to eradicate the hardcore poor,” Phee said.
“To eradicate the hardcore poor we need to identify them first and how do we classify the poor people? There is always a guideline to do that.
“And we started doing it when we took over in 2008 and to ensure that no one is left behind we used RM500 income as the guideline.
“Anyone who has income below RM500, we will top up for them.
“On March 8 2009 we declared that, we have reached out to those who we can reach out to. It was impossible to reach out to everyone since we were still a new government at that time and we needed more networking to do so,” explained Phee on the initiatives to eradicate the hardcore poor in Penang.
Apart from that, the Economic Equity Agenda (AES) was launched in 2008 to ensure that everyone receives at least RM790 a month.
For example, if a family has five members and the household income is less than RM1,000 per month, the family’s per capita income is less than RM220, the state government would provide an “added value” of RM100 per month.
Showing appreciation to senior citizens
Phee stated that it is important to appreciate others and keeping to this very value, the state government came up with the Senior Citizen appreciation programme in 2009.
“In life, we must learn to appreciate people, hence we started to give a one-off payment of RM100 yearly to senior citizens to appreciate and to honour them,’’ said Phee on the senior citizens appreciation programme which indeed is the first such programme in Malaysia.
Being Thoughtful
The state government, being thoughtful of the single mothers, introduced the “Ibu Tunggal” programme to provide a one-off payment of RM100 to single mothers.
“When thinking about who else to help in society, we thought of the single mothers and introduced the single mother programme,” said Phee.
Education is the way to reform the society
School children, Years 1 and 4 and Forms 1 and 4 are given importance as well by the state government as they are the future pillars of the country.
“Education is the path to constructing a better society, as through education, an individual can rise above difficulties,’’ Phee said on the significance of the “Pelajar Emas” programme.
Closing Thoughts
Only when a government looks into the social well-being of its people can it be considered a government that is “whole”.
The Penang state government, which is a caring and loving government, has come up with all these programmes to improve the quality of life of the people here and it is done out of love and concern.
All this is possible as the Pakatan Harapan government is able to record budget surpluses even without GST charges.
“This is because of the clean administration and leadership which is based on the CAT principles” Phee said.