The Employees Provident Fund’s disclosure that only 3% of the population can afford to retire on their EPF savings is alarming.
Given this indisputable truth, it is nonsensical for the opposition Perikatan Nasional coalition to agitate for a further depletion of the people’s only source of financial sustenance after retirement.
Whether it is targeted EPF withdrawals or otherwise, the outcome will be the same: inadequate savings for the vast majority of workers to sustain themselves after retirement.
Without any doubt, the previous PN government’s granting of permission for workers to dip into their retirement savings through the ill-conceived i-Sinar, i-Lestari and i-Citra schemes is the root cause of such a sad state of affairs.
The PN leaders’ enticing of the people to use their own retirement savings totalling RM101bn to tide over their financial constraints while proclaiming that they were the saviours rendering financial help to the people was the mother of all deceptions!
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Faced with the stark reality of depleted EPF savings now, the PN leaders – one would have expected – should have been able to recognise the dire situation and act responsibly.
But despite the grim evidence staring at their faces, these PN leaders have ostensibly elected to fish for votes by riding on calls by some quarters to once again allow the people to dip into their EPF savings.
Politics is all about gaining popularity in the quest to win votes, but it should not be a tool to flirt with the sentiments of EPF contributors. Most of these contributors are left with meagre savings for their post-retirement financial survival.
By pushing for more EPF withdrawals, the PN opposition politicians will only be driving more workers to financial distress after their retirement.
The PN politicians should accept this grim reality instead of trying to gain cheap political popularity at the expense of the 97% of EPF contributors who will be left with insufficient savings once they retire at 60.
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
