KOTA KINABALU: Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister, Datuk Abidin Madingkir, said it’s normal for elected representatives to be asked for financial help, adding that such requests are part of their responsibility.
Responding to Warisan's Calvin Chong (Elopura) during a heated exchange in the State Assembly, Abidin said programmes like SYUKUR and SMJ are in place, but requests still come in.
Chong had questioned the transparency and fairness of aid distribution, particularly the eKasih system.
Abidin clarified that the SYUKUR programme allocates RM358.4 million to support 100,000 poor and hardcore poor recipients, with RM300 monthly payments disbursed quarterly.
To include those left out of eKasih, the state launched the PADANS online system and deployed 85 officers across districts for verification.
As of March 31, over 270,000 applications were received. The number of hardcore poor households in eKasih dropped from 14,553 in February 2024 to 1,464 in February 2025, a 89.9pc decrease.
The state aims to ensure improved households do not fall back below the Poverty Line Income of RM1,218 per household.
