What is one ringgit? What can it get you nowadays? Well, enough to get a boy into trouble, enough to cause him to crawl into a grilled drain to retrieve it.
Recently, an 8-year-old boy caught the imagination of Malaysians when he got trapped in a longkang in Klang after attempting to get back his RM1 pocket money.
What a boy... willing to get all dirtied going down on all fours, unwilling to let go of a ringgit from the hard-earned salary of his father or mother. Here is a kid who understands the importance of money, that you just can’t literally let it go down the drain, no matter how small the amount.
My empathy is with him. When I was his age, when “five sen was bigger than a bullock cart’s wheel” to some people, I had looked into every nook and corner of the school’s toilet after a 20 sen coin rolled away from my pocket. The fear of being scolded by the conductor on the bus home, if I didn’t have 20 sen, made me do it.
At least, they didn’t throw me off the bus in those good old days.
Last week, a college student was ordered off the bus in Kuala Lumpur by a not-so-kind driver because there wasn’t any credit left in his season ticket. His offer of one ringgit to the driver was rejected. As he dejectedly got off the bus, a woman passenger muttered: kasihan (pity him).
As I was seated at the back of the bus, I only knew about it later, and hence didn’t have the chance to pay for his fare. But, why didn’t the passengers near him help? As the bus moved away, I sadly watched the student trudging by the roadside with his head down.
On the other side of the coin, it is hard to make “sen-se” of things. A kid trying so hard to get back RM1, and a kid with RM1 couldn’t get a bus ride. Yet, we have newspaper reports of foreign beggars getting RM1,000 or more a day!
If you think these reports beggar belief, they are as sound as a dollar, so to speak. That’s because some of the beggars themselves have admitted to the media that their daily takings can run into four figures, which makes them richer than you or I.
In good or bad times, Malaysia is still seen as a land of easy pickings for foreign beggars. For many of us, what is one ringgit (or more) if it can make us feel better in walking past them without feeling guilty?
But, this sends the wrong message to others in other countries, that they can come to Malaysia to beg, where the money is good.
Even our welfare officials do not want us to fatten the beggars’ bank accounts.
As it is, Malaysians are griping about foreigners taking over their jobs in factories, farms and other sectors. Now, local beggars are complaining they have to fight for their “territory” with foreigners.
Some Malaysians have already stopped giving beggars money, offering them clothing, food and drinks instead. But, they are quite choosy; they prefer money.
On a different note, today is Budget Day, and the lower-income group is counting on some good news, more than a few ringgit for their pockets, from the government.
Chan Wai Kong is NST deputy sports editor. He sees life differently after waking up from a coma following a car accident in
Vancouver