Bagi Dr Mahathir, tindakan Putrajaya memberi BR1M sebagai salah satu cara meningkatkan pendapatan untuk mencapai status negara maju pada 2020 adalah sangat mengelirukan.
Menulis dalam blognya, bekas perdana menteri itu perkata pendapatan per kapita tidak patut dijadikan perkiraan sebagai kejayaan Malaysia mencapai status negara maju.
"Pendapatan per kapita tidak akan menjadikan Malaysia negara membangun, malah ia lebih mengelirukan apabila pendapatan dinaikkan hanya bergantung kepada pemberian wang tunai," katanya melalui blog chedet.cc hari ini.
Beliau berkata sosialis dan komunis cuba memperbaiki pendapatan masyarakat dengan memberi wang tunai dan kemudahan fasiliti.
Tetapi katanya, sosialis dan komunis juga akhirnya gagal dengan kaedah tersebut dan rakyat terpaksa mengambil jalan keluar melalui perusahaan bebas dan bekerja keras.
"Kita mesti meraih pendapatan dengan meningkatkan produktiviti, bukan dengan pemberian wang tunai dari kerajaan."
Beliau juga berkata tidak adil bagi rakyat menuduhnya tidak memahami tujuan pemberian BR1M.
Ini bukan pertama kali Dr Mahathir mengkritik polisi pentadbiran Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
Bagaimanapun Najib mempertahankan pemberian BR1M dengan menyatakan ia merupakan sebahagian daripada usaha kerajaan untuk mengurangkan beban rakyat akibat daripada pemotongan subsidi dan juga bertujuan sebagai bantuan kepada rakyat.
Dr Mahathir berkata beliau menentang pemberian wang tunai sebagai kaedah meningkatkan pendapatan sejak dari awal pelaksanaannya.
"Kalau ya pun, bantuan kewangan perlu diberikan kepada yang benar-benar susah dan tidak mampu bekerja bagi meraih pendapatan.
"Bantahan utama saya ialah kerana pemberian wang pada skala begitu sangat kelihatan seperti rasuah," katanya.
Tambahan pula, katanya, apabila BR1M diberikan ketika hampir dengan pilihan raya atau disenaraikan dalam manifesto pilihan raya, ia mewujudkan persepsi bantuan itu bertujuan mendapatkan undi.
"Sekiranya pendapatan perlu ditingkatkan, ia sepatutnya dengan cara mewujudkan peluang pekerjaan atau perniagaan.
"Tetapi BR1M mempunyai lebih banyak implikasi negatif daripada itu. Ia meningkatkan kecenderungan bergantung kepada kerajaan, termasuk bagi meningkatkan pendapatan sendiri, tanpa berusaha sendiri.
"Ia melemahkan karakter rakyat dan mengurangkan daya saing mereka dalam pasaran," katanya.
Pendapatan tinggi perlu datang dari peningkatan produktiviti yang hanya boleh terhasil melalui pendidikan yang lebih baik dan latihan, kata Dr Mahathir.
"Kemampuan meningkatkan produktiviti datang dari nilai tambah yang lebih besar bagi sesuatu produk," katanya.
Beliau berkata, dengan kewujudan lebih banyak industri dengan nilai tambah yang tinggi, pendapatan pekerja akan meningkat berikutan sumbangan besar mereka kepada majikan.
Sambil menyatakan yang hasil kerajaan datangnya daripada cukai, Dr Mahathir berpendapat rakyat tidak akan suka melihat cukai yang mereka bayar digunakan sebagai alat pilihan raya.
"Sudah pasti mereka tidak mahu melihat wang daripada hasil titik peluh mereka digunakan bagi memenangi populariti untuk sesiapa atau mana-mana parti politik atau pentadbiran," katanya. – tmi
Dr M: Don't use people's money to be popular...
After panning the debt-ridden 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), Dr Mahathir Mohamad has now criticised Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M).
In a blog posting, the former premier reminded the government that its money is derived from taxes.
"Taxes raise the cost of living. Still the people are willing to endure the raised cost of living because they expect the government to give them security, to govern the country well, to have policies which benefit the people.
"But the people would not like to see the taxes they pay to be expended in ways that are beyond this.
"Certainly they would not want their hard-earned money to be expended on winning popularity for anyone or political parties or administrations," he added.
Looks similar to bribery and vote-buying
Mahathir said monetary handouts on a large scale such as BR1M look similar to bribery.
"And
when this is given near elections or the manifesto promises this, the
impression that it is about buying votes just cannot be dismissed."If incomes are to be increased, it should be by way of creating opportunities for work or business," he added.
Furthermore, he said such handouts also increase personal dependence on the government even for one's income, without any effort by oneself.
"It weakens the character of people and reduces their competitiveness in the market place," he added.
High income, Mahathir said, should come from increases in productivity.
"Without increasing productivity, competitiveness would not improve. And the economy would not really grow. These countries invariably depend on foreign workers, executives and entrepreneurs," he added.
Socialists and Communists tried the same
Mahathir also said it was misleading to think that Malaysian can become a developed nation by 2020 by increasing average incomes to a certain level.
"A few people with very high incomes would distort the average income. Per capita income should not be a measure of our achievement of developed country status.
"The emphasis on high income alone is not enough. In fact by itself it will not make the country a developed country. It would be even more misleading when the income is due to handouts by the government," he argued.
To be developed, the former premier said, the nation must be at par with developed countries in terms of education, technological and industrial knowhow, research and development, industrialised to a high level, commensurate infrastructure and high earned incomes for all.
"It is imperative therefore to spend money on education and training to a higher level, to build up engineering and industrial capacities, to be productive and competitive, to expend money on building first-class infrastructure and to be researchers, inventors and developers.
"Since we want to be developed in our own mould, we can reject the moral values of some developed countries."We see them obviously decaying because of the emphasis on unlimited materialism and personal freedom.
"We must sustain the good values that we have and acquire good ethnics which will contribute to our productivity and our income. In other words we must earn our income through higher productivity and not through handouts by the government," he added.
Mahathir said the Socialists and Communists tried to improve their people's incomes by giving them money and making free availability of support facilities to ensure they have a good life.
"But Socialism and Communism have failed. They have to resort to free enterprise and hard work," he added. - mk
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