Najib: Another U-turn by PH with BSH

PETALING JAYA: Former premier Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has once again mocked the Pakatan Harapan government, this time about the Bantuan Sara Hidup (BSH).

This comes after Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng announced that the first phase of the BSH payment for next year will be made on Jan 28.

He said on Wednesday (Dec 26) that using the old database does mean that there is a big possibility that some of the recipients are actually ineligible for the aid

Lim added that this must be done in order to facilitate payment before February next year.

Najib labelled this as yet another U-turn by the PH government.

"Back then Pakatan accused Barisan of bribery, dedak (animal feed) and that 'cash is king'. Now, they want to speed up BR1M payments.

"The shows that Pakatan finally knows the economic situation is worse than what people expected. They realise that the people are starting to get angry at the Pakatan government," he said on his Facebook page on Wednesday (Dec 26).

He maintained that if Barisan were still in power and  the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was still in place, BR1M payouts would benefit more than what the BSH would.

Former Umno Youth Chief Khairy Jamaluddin also had a say, mocking Lim for using the same database and method used by the previous government to disburse aid.

He took to Twitter to remind Lim of what has been said by the Pakatan government before coming into power.

"Back then you said it was 'dedak' (animal feed). Now, you use the same BR1M database. What Malaysia Baru? Oh yeah, no 1MDB," the Rembau MP said on Twitter.

Umno secretary-general Tan Sri Annuar Musa also mocked Pakatan, saying that they would distribute animal feed on Jan 28, just like how Barisan did.

"There is no other choice but to follow BN's way," he said in a tweet.

BSH 2019 is expected to benefit 4.1 million households via the first phase of payment amounting to RM300 per household, involving an RM1.2bil allocation by the government, according to Lim.

“As announced in the Budget 2019 speech, the government will continue with the BSH programme in order to help ease the B40 group’s cost of living,” he said.The payment will be credited straight to the recipients’ bank accounts.

BR1M was renamed to BSH when Pakatan Harapan took over Putrajaya after the May 9 general election.