KUCHING, Jan 22: Democratic Action Party (DAP) Batu Kitang chairman Abdul Aziz Isa opines the bank loan moratorium should be extended further until Aug 31, 2021, to reduce the financial burden borne by the people during the pandemic outbreak.
Abdul Aziz, who is special assistant to Sarawak Pakatan Harapan (PH) chief Chong Chieng Jen, in a statement today, said 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.
According to him although both federal and state governments have come 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 programme 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 receive anything out of it.
“Therefore, the federal government led by Perikatan Nasional (PN) should introduce the automatic extension of bank loan moratorium for seven months until Aug 31, 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,” he said.
Abdul Aziz, who is also DAP Socialist Youth (Dapsy) Stampin chief, pointed out that 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.
He said 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.
“It’s not that difficult to do so as PN is the government and they should have the political will to do so,” he added.
On another matter, Abdul Aziz disclosed a total of 13 families from Kampung Sandong in Batu Kitang constituency received food aid which was distributed by DAP Batu Kitang branch, earlier today.
He said the food aid was a courtesy from a group of a good Samaritans and was distributed to underprivileged families.
“It is also part of our weekly welfare programme 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,” he said. –DayakDaily.
Abdul Aziz (second right) distributing the food aid to one of the recipients in Kampung Sandong in Batu Kitang constituency, while the others look on.
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