The joy of receiving RM500 has been fleeting. Now, the coffee shops, market traders, hawkers and food courts have all increased their prices, and the pain will not go away, observes P Ramakrishnan.
Whatever great things arise in the end, justice will not be served because the fixation with race has a way of intervening that corrupts everything including goals and institutions, says K Haridas.
Handouts and populist policies can only go that far, beyond which they would eventually hurt the human dignity of the very people these policies are supposed to serve, writes Mustafa K Anuar.
Any realistic civil servant of limited means and a young family to feed probably won’t fail to recognise this ‘homes for votes’ offer as a bouquet of paper roses from the PM, says Rakyat Jelata.
With the credibility of our institutions at an all-time low, we need only to turn to the local teh tarik stall or coffee shops for the latest independent banter – and biting humour, observes Tota.