LETTER | When citizens have to pay for treatment or screening in a pandemic situation, there is something grossly wrong.

Malaysia is not a developed nation. In fact, we now have a ballooning B40 population that is struggling to make ends meet.

Even the M40 group are buckling with looming job losses and pay cuts while housing and vehicle loans and tuition fees for kids remain a nightmare for many.

And as we face the Covid-19 ravages, citizens under red zones are required to undergo testing.

What makes it all highly questionable is a standard test costs RM150 on the minimum.

How many households can cough out so much money, especially if there are three or more in a family that have to comply with the standard operating procedure under the prevailing movement control order?

A concerned member of Parliament has voiced out recently recommending that the fee be reduced to RM50 per citizen.

Now, why is oil and resource-rich Malaysia that could even give a percentage of oil revenue over the decades to a political party that is currently unable to give free medical assistance in the face of a pandemic?

Why is this nation that always claimed to be a wise, able and well-governed country reporting a myriad of investments using tax money suddenly so poor that it cannot rise to the occasion to alleviate the crisis faced by the suffering rakyat?

When we can beat the gong for having increased the number of bumiputra millionaires and some billionaires because of a highly successful national economic policy, how come in the wake of this threatening pandemic, citizens caught in a red zone have to cough out scarce money to save their lives from danger and to protect the nation from being inundated with an out of control virus attack?

When the government can budget and pay salaries and perks for an unusual and unprecedented bloated cabinet of 70 members, citizens have to pay RM150 each for saving their lives?

Where are our elected members of Parliament who went to market proclaiming that they have us commoners in their hearts as they peddled relentlessly to secure our votes of thrust?

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.