SIMPANG RENGGAM: Pakatan Harapan chairman Anwar Ibrahim tonight promised to increase the RM100 Sumbangan Asas Rahmah (SARA) aid if the government remained stable.
Speaking at a ceramah on the eve of the Johor polls, Anwar said the government first decided to distribute the SARA aid after learning that some poor households could not afford cooking oil.
Anwar said it was not right that as prime minister he “would travel in his official car and live in his official residence but the rakyat had nothing”.
“I said to myself, ‘this can’t be’. Which is why we (the government) doled out the SARA aid. And if the government remains stable, backed by the people and PH is strong, we will increase the SARA aid.”
In February it was reported that nearly 8.1 million people claimed the one‑off cash aid.
Anwar went on to compare himself to Sivaji, a character played Indian film star Rajinikanth, in a 2007 Tamil movie titled: “Sivaji: The Boss”.
He said that Sivaji had been assaulted while in prison, but emerged triumphant in the end. “I too, like Sivaji, was thrown into jail and beaten up, but I became a prime minister.”
In 1998, after Dr Mahathir Mohamaed dismissed him as deputy prime minister, Anwar was assaulted in the Bukit Aman lockup in 1998 by then inspector-general of police Abdul Rahim Noor.
A photograph of Anwar showing him with a black eye and hand raised in defiance, became an iconic image of the opposition Reformasi movement that rallied for him to be freed.
