Share our blessings with the less fortunate

IT is so heartening to see a fellow Malaysian receiving an honour for her services, as reported in “Mercy Malaysia founder honoured” (The

Star, Nov 4; online at bit.ly/star_ asean).

Well done, Tan Sri Dr Jemilah Mahmood (pic) on being the first Malaysian to receive the Asean Prize. And thank you, sister, for your contributions towards the betterment of humanity, especially the less fortunate in our communities.

Your service should set an example for others to follow.

There are many pockets of such endeavours we Malaysians are involved in that are rarely reported on because they are silently made, without requiring publicity.

Thanks to The Star for highlighting some of these unheralded social programmes.

Because of the affluence of the current generation, some have forgotten the plight of the less fortunate. Every race in Malaysia has people living below the poverty line. The issue is the gap between the T20 (top 20%) and the B40 (bottom 40%) of society.

It is unfortunate that the policies of the last 40 years or so designed to improve racial disparities failed to distribute support and enhance systems to benefit all levels of society. Such policies created a situation whereby some became extremely rich while most remained where they were or even became worse off, comparatively.

We Malaysians were a caring lot irrespective of race and religion before. Of late, though, we seem to have lost this feeling to a certain extent because of divisive politicians who don’t care for the rakyat except during election time when they issue fantastic promises.

Yet there still seems to be some people, in organisations small and big, who are driving movements to care and have compassion for the less fortunate.

It is gratifying to read of people like Dr Jemilah who are making such contributions. The stories can be eye-openers to the affluent to share some of our blessings with the those who are less fortunate by birth or circumstances.

MARCUS N. SUNDRAM Petaling Jaya