Open Letter to the Prime Minister by 15 Blind and 55 Senior Citizens
Dear Datuk Seri,
We are 15 Blind and 55 Senior Citizens who have been given allowance of RM300 per month by the Government due to our circumstances.
Most of us were either born or were sick from young which affected our sight permanently. Our ages now range from 35 -60, we do not have and never given opportunity to hold permanent jobs with fix income due to our blindness. Our income used to be between RM10 – RM30 a day. We do not have sufficient fund to save for medical needs when we are sick and dread the day when no-one wants us to work. For the past 1 year you have raised our food prices not once but three times. Due to this we sometimes can only have a bun with water to fill our stomach. As if this is not enough you have now taken away our allowance of RM300 per month since April 2010 citing that we are employed and that the Government cannot afford to help us. That RM300 means a lot to us to pay our rental and insurance. Many of us who have taken up insurance policy for the past ten years and some more than that suddenly are now without a policy because we did not have the money to pay the monthly premium.
We are 55 Senior Citizens range from 60 – 79, we are fortunate that Malaysians are rather kind hearten these days to give us left over food which was better than going hungry for days. Like our 15 Blind Friends we too are affected by your mega dreams. We have not been given our allowance of RM300 per month since June 2010. We would like to share our experience on getting the allowance. Every month we have to go to the Welfare office which does not have lifts. So we struggle to climb many stairs to reach the office, upon reaching we are treated like pariah dogs. The office is manned by rude and cold hearted tudung Muslim. On good days we only have to wait five hours to see the officer, on bad days we wait for a whole week without seeing the officer. All the welfare staff are agents for this and that product and they are never shy to insist we must buy something. If we were to protest or decline to buy, we will be given a hard time come next allowance day. Sometime we are too sick to come before the eighth of the new month then our money is forfeited. The actual amount receive each month after been forced to buy their ware is only RM120. To you RM120 is just a tip for your driver but to us that amount is for us to fill our stomach for the whole month.
Datuk Seri, we too are citizens of this country. We may be blind and old but we have contributed in many small ways to develop this country too. Without us you would not have gone to study overseas and live a luxury life today.
We understand you are now claiming many achievements and foreign investors interest in our country due to your leadership so why the need to take away our petite sum of RM300 per month?
Please Datuk Seri we are human beings too, must you strangle us to death to satisfy your dream.
Yours sincerely,
15 Blind and 55 Senior Citizen living in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.