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There is something comforting about a government that appears to notice.
In recent months, the introduction of Madani Mart feels, at the very least, like an acknowledgement. That somewhere, in the machinery of policy and politics, there is an awareness that people are struggling - not in abstract terms, but in the daily arithmetic of eggs, rice, oil, and everything in between.
So yes, thank you.
Thank you for recognising that the cost of living is not a headline, it is a lived reality. Thank you for attempting to ease that burden, even if only by a few ringgit at a time. For many, that matters.
But beneath the gratitude sits a quieter, more uncomfortable question.
We have been here before.
Years ago, there was Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia (KR1M), introduced under Najib Razak. It carried a similar promise: affordable essentials, accessible to the rakyat. It, too, was positioned as a response to rising costs, as a sign that the government was paying attention.
And yet, it did not last.
Today, we have Madani Mart under Anwar Ibrahim. A different name. A different administration. A familiar intention.
Which raises the question we rarely ask out loud:
If it worked then, why didn’t we keep it?
If it works now, will we keep this?
In Malaysia, good ideas often arrive with enthusiasm but leave with the administration that introduced them. Policies are not merely implemented - they are branded. And once branded, they become politically owned.
KR1M was not just a retail initiative; it was tied to an era.
Madani Mart is not just a store; it carries the identity of the present government.
And when governments change, so too do the names, the logos, the narratives - sometimes even the very existence of these programmes.
It is not that the problems disappear. Only the solutions do.
Part of this, perhaps, is political instinct. A new administration must signal change, must differentiate itself, must demonstrate that it is not merely continuing the past but improving upon it. Keeping a previous initiative may feel, to some, like conceding credit.
But in doing so, we risk something far more costly than political pride: continuity.
Because the rakyat do not experience policy in election cycles. They experience it in monthly expenses. They do not need a new initiative every five years. They need the same support, sustained, refined, and made reliable over time.
The irony is this - we do not lack ideas.
We have, in different forms and under different names, already attempted to address the cost of living. The intent has been there. The recognition has been there.
What seems to be missing is the discipline to separate good policy from political ownership.
Imagine, for a moment, a different approach. One where an incoming government looks at an existing initiative and says: this works - we will improve it, not erase it. One where policies are evaluated not by who introduced them, but by whether they serve the people.
It is not an impossible standard. It is simply an unfamiliar one.
None of this diminishes the value of what is being attempted now. If Madani Mart succeeds in easing even a fraction of the financial strain faced by ordinary Malaysians, then it deserves recognition, and support.
But perhaps the greater measure of success is not whether it works today.
It is whether it is allowed to exist tomorrow.
Because if every Prime Minister must introduce his own version of compassion, then compassion was never the policy.
It was the branding.
Fa Abdul (fa.abdul.penang@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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