This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on April 6, 2020 - April 12, 2020

A day after the prime minister announced the government’s RM250 billion stimulus package, which is aimed at providing economic relief amid the Covid-19 pandemic, an image of Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and wife looking at each other made the rounds on social media platforms. In the image were two speech bubbles over their heads, supposedly of a dialogue between them.

The PM’s wife was portrayed asking him “Abang, siapa Makcik Kiah?” (Dear, who is Makcik Kiah?). Muhyiddin’s reply, translated into English, goes, “She’s only an example. Don’t worry.” Or something to that effect.

It’s a satire of sorts — a dig at Muhyiddin, purportedly facing the big question wives may ask their husbands, which is, “Is there another woman?”

But seriously, Muhyiddin used the Makcik Kiah figure to explain how the financial assistance his administration is dishing out will help the rakyat in these depressing times.

I suppose Makcik Kiah is the equivalent of Jane Doe in the US. Nobody in particular, yet everybody too. As some journalists put it, Makcik Kiah is a hardworking Malaysian facing difficulties like never before.

But why pick Makcik Kiah as an example to showcase the beneficiaries of government assistance? It is as if only her community is in dire financial straits, needing help and getting the help they need. That is the perception. Adding to the perception of a Malay leader helping only Malays (which is not helping matters) is the fact that Muhyiddin is known to have said some years ago that he was Malay first, Malaysian second. Hence the question: Why not Aunty Mei or Aunty Letchumany instead?

Such a perception is surely misplaced, even unfair perhaps. Regardless of whether it is Makcik Kiah, Aunty Mei or Aunty Letchumany, the Muhyiddin administration has promised help for everybody as “nobody will be left out” because “this government may not be the government you voted for but this government cares for you”.

Other aspects of the stimulus package apart, the example of Makcik Kiah used by Muhyiddin to highlight the slew of measures he announced seems oversimplified. In fact, there are analysts who are of the opinion that the greatest weakness of Muhyiddin’s economic stimulus package is the “proud” example of Makcik Kiah and family.

But the PM has his fans as well. The Makcik Kiah strategy has won him political points, not to mention his overall performance in delivering his speech on the stimulus package. A fellow journalist called the coining of the term Makcik Kiah “cute”.

This was what Muhyiddin said about Makcik Kiah in a nutshell: Makcik Kiah is a pisang goreng hawker whose husband is a retired government employee drawing a monthly pension. He is now a Grab car driver and is also serving Rela, the national paramilitary volunteer corps. Their child is studying on a PTPTN loan. Their household income is under RM4,000 per month.

With all the assistance they would be getting under the stimulus package, said Muhyiddin, Makcik Kiah’s family would receive a financial boost of RM3,400. And taking into account the six-month deferment of public housing rental, car loan instalments and utility bills, the total benefit for Makcik Kiah would come to RM4,464.

But to veteran journalist Datuk A Kadir Jasin, not everyone is like Makcik Kiah. “How about Makcik Limah?” he asked. “A housewife living in the kampong whose husband is a daily wage earner at an eating shop serving tom yam and with three school-going children?”

The amount of cash assistance they would be getting, according to Kadir, is less than what was announced on television by the prime minister. Debatable? Of course.

However, as far as Makcik Kiah is concerned, based on Kadir’s calculations, it would amount to only RM744 in public housing rental and RM120 on the electricity bill — not exactly the amount cited by the premier.

Writing in his blog, Kadir said, as such, Makcik Kiah should not be deceived. Furthermore, he said, the financial assistance is a one-off measure and even that will be split into two payments and is not on a lump-sum basis.

But what is telling in his remarks is this: The real gain is only RM864 because all of Makcik Kiah’s loans, totalling RM3,600 must, in the end, be repaid.

Which brings me to a speech by the late British prime minister Margaret Thatcher at the Conservative Party Conference in October 1983, where she said, “The state has no source of income other than the money people earn themselves. If the state wishes to spend more, it can only do so by borrowing your savings or by taxing you more. And it is no good thinking someone else is paying. That someone else is you.”

Mohsin Abdullah is a contributing editor at The Edge. He has covered politics for more than four decades.

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