While the KKB by-election was going on last May 11, another more significant event was also taking place in the country unnoticed.
This event was the introduction of Account 3 by EPF, which allows contributors to allocate 10 percent of their EPF contribution to a newly created third account, called the Akaun Fleksibel, which they can withdraw from at any time, just as they would withdraw money from a bank account.
Now, you might ask, what is the purpose of introducing Account 3?
Of course, if you listen to the government and the powers-that-be, they will probably say that they introduced the Account 3 scheme solely for the convenience and benefit of the grassroots and the working class. They will claim that they had no desire for it to be introduced – they just did it because the people wanted it, and they were merely following the wishes of the people, portraying themselves as benevolent.
The powers that be, if you notice, will always say they are such nice people right before they go about robbing the people and the country.
When a blue-collar robber robs you, at least he has the courtesy to tell you that he is causing you harm and inflicting a loss for his benefit. When a white-collar robber robs you, on the other hand, they often add insult to injury by telling you that by robbing you, they are actually doing you a favour.
Regardless of what narrative the powers-that-be are spinning, I personally reckon that the government most likely introduced the Account 3 scheme because the economy and the B40 are in such dire straits that the government thought allowing the B40 to dip into their savings would enable them to save themselves without needing a cent to be spent on them, while also injecting some much-needed cash into the economy, which the powers-that-be can then use to keep their pockets filled.
Is it true that the situation of the B40 group has become dire?
Well, let me put it to you this way.
Once you sign up for Account 3, if you have a base salary of RM 2000, and you and your employer contribute a total of 24 percent of your base salary to your EPF every month, your contributions to EPF will amount to RM 480 a month. Ten percent of that is RM 48, which is what you can withdraw from your EPF Account 3.
If you wonder what a mere extra RM 48 or RM 50 a month can do for a person, you should check out the extraordinarily long queue at the EPF offices across the country as soon as registration for Account 3 opened.
From the size of the queue, you can clearly see that many people in the country might not be able to make it through the month without that RM 50.
If so many people are queuing up just to get access to an extra RM 50 or so a month, then surely there must be many people in such a dire situation in the country that if they fall sick or need sudden cash to fix their bike, phone, or car, if it breaks down, they have no other place to go than to dip into Account 3.
What other explanation is there for why the B40 are so eager to sign up for Account 3 on the first day it opened for registration?
Now you might say that such strong speculation and conjecture cannot be made baselessly and that studies need to be conducted by legitimate authorities before deciding whether the economy and the B40 are indeed in such dire straits, but I put it to you that we will never have such a study conducted, and that is why we have to resort to conjectures and speculations.
This being Malaysia, uncomfortable truths that embarrass or inconvenience the powers-that-be will never see the light.
Even if the economy and the B40 is in a dire condition, our media, intellectuals, government agencies, or institutions are most likely going to keep quiet about it rather than look for the truth and get themselves in trouble with the powers-that-be.
By the way, it is not as if our media, intellectuals, government agencies, or institutions are unused to sweeping uncomfortable questions under the carpet.
The fact that there are millions of foreign workers, many of them being undocumented, is proof that our media, intellectuals, government agencies, or institutions are more than capable of sweeping even a huge phenomenon under the carpet if studying it will upset the powers-that-be.
It is precisely because they are used to dancing to the tune of the powers-that-be, that instead of questioning the necessity of having so many foreign workers, our media, intellectuals, government agencies, or institutions are more apt to agree with the narrative that the powers-that-be want them to perpetuate, which is that all these foreign workers are essential for the economic well-being of the country, even if the only people who seem to profit from their existence are the powers-that-be themselves.
To curry some additional favour from the powers-that-be, our media, intellectuals, government agencies or institutions can be expected to add some spice to the narrative of the powers-that-be, by saying that we need all these foreign workers because the locals are just “spoilt” or “lazy,” but what they can never be expected to say is the obvious truth – which is that our powers-that-be want all these foreign workers simply because they are in the business of exploitation. That it is by exploiting the labour of the working class, both foreign and domestic, that our powers-that-be chiefly make their money.
Have you ever wondered what happens to an undocumented foreign worker when they die? There are millions of them here, surely tens or hundreds of thousands of them have died in the country, but have you ever seen a cemetery dedicated to a foreign worker?
Me neither.
That, by the way, is the level of exploitation practiced in the country. It is so bad that even if they die, an undocumented foreign worker cannot expect their bodies to be accorded any respect in the country.
Besides the foreign workers, the story of how the easily exploitable foreign workers in the plantation sector have been used by the powers-that-be to displace the Indian estate workers, to the point that entire generations of Indians have overnight become the new disenfranchised urban subaltern, which in turn has caused an entire generations of Indians to become mired in a life of gangsterism and crime, will also not be discussed openly because it is also an uncomfortable truth that might cause discomfort to the powers-that-be.
Rather than discuss the matter in depth and risk any inconvenient truth slipping out, the powers-that-be would probably just get the government, media, and intellectuals, which they control, to sweep the matter under the carpet so that they can maintain the image of being good, caring, and responsible people who are only concerned about the well-being of the people, not making money by any means necessary.
Just like how our government, media, and intellectuals will never ask why so many Indians are involved in gangsterism, or why the Indians become so aggressive when the only thing that remains of their past identity as the pioneers of the plantation sector, which is often just an oddly located temple in some urban area, is threatened with demolition, or what happens to an undocumented foreign worker when they die, I seriously doubt whether they will ever conduct any serious study to ask whether the EPF Account 3 was introduced for the benefit of the people or for the benefit of the powers-that-be, who might just require the account 3 to be introduced to pump in a couple of billions of the working class’s savings into the economy, just to keep their pockets filled.
To find out the truth, as usual, we will just have to wait and see.
Just like how we only found out that the country and the people have been tricked and manipulated by the powers-that-be when we see millions of foreign workers being exploited in our midst, or when we had to deal with numerous stateless children that these undocumented workers have left behind in our country, or when we see an entire generation of Indians being mired in crime and gangsterism, or when some riots occur when a temple is about to be demolished, we will also probably only know of the effects that the greed of the exploitative elites is leaving on our country through the Account 3 scheme in the future, when we find old people dying on our streets in the future.
By that time, of course, it will be too late to do anything about it or bring the people responsible for the travesty to account. By that time, we will just be arguing with ourselves about what to do with the mess that we are left with, while those who caused it will be laughing their way to the bank.
Nehru Sathiamoorthy is the author of “While Waiting for the World to end”. He was a columnist at FMT and a frequent contributor to the South China Morning Post, The Star, Malaysia-Today, MalaysiaNow, MalaysiaKini and Focus Malaysia.
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