JKSM PROGRAMME FOR ALL MALAYSIANS: ABDULLAH

TELUK INTAN (Malaysia), Feb 26 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad
Badawi has given his assurance that the Malaysian Social Security Network (JKSM)
programme will provide security to all poor Malaysians regardless of race and
religion.

As such, he had asked all ministries and government agencies concerned to
identify and carefully select the poor and hardcore poor who deserved the
assistance.

"Hopefully, insya-Allah (God Willing), we will be able to assist this group
throughout the
country, including those in East Malaysia states - Sabah and Sarawak
respectively, through this initiative. This is a programme to demonstrate the
deep concern of the Barisan Nasional (BN) government for the poor in our
country," he said when launching the Federal Welfare Aid's JKSM Card at the
Arena square, here Wednesday.

Teluk Intan is a town located in the northern state of Perak in Peninsular
Malaysia.

Barisan Nasional (Malay for National Front; commonly abbreviated as BN) is a
major political coalition in Malaysia and it has been Malaysia's ruling
political party since independence.

Abdullah said poverty eradication had become a policy championed by the BN
government to overcome the problems faced by the poor and hardcore poor group in
the country.

"For the Muslims, we don't want them to live in poverty because the Prophet
(Muhammad) had said that poverty can cause a person to become ungrateful.

We want to eradicate poverty. The poor comparatively will continue to exist
but we want the percentage to be reduced," he said.

Earlier in her speech, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Dr
Ng Yen Yen said the household income was not the absolute condition for
an individual or family to qualify for the welfare aid.

She said other conditions such as Malaysian citizenship, the number of
dependants, health status, age, disability, and so on were also taken into
condition as the criteria to qualify them to receive the aid.

"As such, each case referred to the Social Welfare Department will not be
automatically approved for the aid. If they are deemed to deserve assistance
under the aid scheme provided by other government agencies such as housing,
skills training and so on, they will be referred to the relevant agencies," she
said.

Ng said that many poor people had been left out of various aid programmes
and as such, her ministry had sought permission from Abdullah to widen the
coverage of the social security network programme under her ministry.

She said that following the agreement of the Prime Minister, the level of
income for an individual to qualify for such aid had been revised from RM400 per
month to RM720 US$1=RM3.60) per month in Peninsular Malaysia, RM830 per month in
Sarawak and
RM960 per month in Sabah.

"Subsequently, an additional allocation of RM500 million had been approved
for welfare assistance under the Social Welfare Department for the year 2009,"
she said.

With the widening of the social security network, it was estimated that
110,000 households would be eligible for consideration for such aid compared
with 54,000 households presently, she said.

On the JKSM Card which was launched Wednesday, Ng said it was an electronic
card which functioned as an identity card for the recipient of the federal aid
under the Social Welfare Department to replace the existing card which differed
in format between the various states.

-- BERNAMA