Press Statement By Abdul Aziz:
We were on the ground this morning to distribute food to underprivileged families at Kpg Sandong (DUN Batu Kitang)
We received food donations from a group of good Samaritans for us to distribute to the underprivileged families. It is also part of our weekly welfare program to help those in need regardless of their races, religious convictions or political affiliations. We also would like to thank the donors who came forward to help us in our efforts to help those in need.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, many families have lost their jobs and are currently struggling to improve their household income in order to put food on the table. Some of them have run out of savings as they need to cover their other financial commitments such as paying
loans (housing and car), medications and education fees for their children. With the spike of Covid-19 positive cases and the reimplementation of Movement Control Order (“MCO”) and Recovery Movement Control Order (“RMCO”), many underprivileged families especially who falls under the B40 category are unemployed which forces them to sell their properties to reduce their financial commitments.
Although both federal and state governments have came out with several types of financial assistance in their stimulus packages, that doesn’t mean all of these underprivileged families were entitled to enjoy the benefits. Some were even left out from the program due to the red-tape bureaucracy when they made their applications. Despite all the acronyms that were introduced in the stimulus packages, it became meaningless if the supposedly targeted groups didn’t received anything out of it.
Therefore, the federal government led by Perikatan Nasional (“PN”) should introduce automatic extension of bank loan moratorium for seven months until 31st August 2021. This is necessary to ease the financial burden faced by the Middle 40 (“M40”) and Below 40 (“B40”) groups that are heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s not that difficult to do so as PN is the government and they should have the political will to do so.
Among those present to distribute the food aid were Jack Murch James (DAP Batu Kitang Branch Deputy Chairman) and Zakaria Hj Julai (DAP Batu Kitang Branch Committee Member)
22-01-2021
Abdul Aziz Isa
Special Assistant to YB Chong Chieng Jen
DAP Batu Kitang Branch Chairman
DAPSY Stampin Chief
