The hawker: Cash strapped, TV, handphone

I have a friend that always complained on how tough life is, and how difficult it is to make ends meet. He is a hawker, his wife the helper, and has three kids.

Some hawkers are rich, but he is not… I am not really sure why. A couple of years ago, his eldest son finished Form Five, came out to work, got his first pay… and the first thing they did was spending most (if not all) of the salary to buy a new TV.

My friend is still crying on how tough life is… but he got a new company now, with his dear son complaining just about the same thing.

Last I checked, the son use a handphone that is five times more expensive than mine.

Good girl buys Prada

I have a friend, who saved on everything she could, so that she could spend on the latest (and expensive) fashion merchandises… Prada, Gucci, LV, whatever.

She often eats instant noodles for dinner, always complaining money not enough, and probably has three credit cards which she’s indebted with. A sweet and lovely girl though.

The student: PTPTN, laptop, iPod

A distant cousin, second year in college now. Complaining that PTPTN loan not enough, hating his parents for giving him little pocket money.

Have a laptop, an iPod, and never bothered to find a part time job while crying out that he doesn’t have enough money to party with his friends at night.

The smokers

A mamak chat with a few friends after a fuel price hike last year. They smoked a lot, and complained about the price hike. Asked if they would consider quitting (or reducing) smoking… all said no, one said… “tak rokok tak macam jantan lah.”

I wonder if they would have second thoughts after the recent petrol hike. I don’t smoke btw.

The rich and famous

A beautiful friend, cursing the government for the fuel hike… she drives an Audi, and her body smells like Whisky, probably because of some late night drinking.

I told her… “so, drink a bit little lor.” She answered… “#$!@%$, why do I have to change my lifestyle because of the stupid gaman? Pak Lah is $@%! @$% #%! @$%!$@%”

My concern

An ex-colleague, work in a factory, basic pay less than RM1000 (probably a few extra hundreds with OT). Only 26 or 27 of age, has four kids. His wife not working, has to take care of the kids.

He rides a motorbike. I saw him hiding a few packed chocolates in his pocket during a company dinner years ago, wanted to bring back to his kids. A humble guy, probably a good father.

Life is about options

Some people don’t have much options, but for lots of the Malaysians… life is a matter of preferences, and the choices are in your own hands.

The move to ban loan defaulters from travelling abroad was taken after PTPTN’s previous measures to recover the loans including publishing their names, blacklisting them, taking them to court and imposing higher penalties brought little success.

This action should work against defaulters that want to travel (because of work or vacation), but I am not sure how many people are actually affected with this new rule… perhaps just 10-20% of the total numbers.

Frankly, PTPTN should up their ante to tackle this issue. Taking the loan defaulters to court should work well, and it should be enforced systematically… making sure that nobody would escape from the hook. The defaulters will start to take the matter (repaying loan) seriously if they know that they would be in deep trouble if they failed to do so.

PTPTN can also work with other agencies to snap the defaulters. This travel-barred is a good start; they should also cooperate with EPF, LHDN and private banks etc. to make life difficult for the loan defaulters… the defaulters could (and should) be barred from taking other loans (house, cars, credit cards) and having their EPF deducted as loan repayment.

Most of these people do have a job and can afford to repay the loan; if they are indeed unemployed or for some reason could not make the payment at the moment… they should apply for a postponement of repayment or other options depending on the circumstances.

There is no point trying to raise the conscience of the loan defaulters… they probably don’t care or else they would have started paying their loans at the first place. Stern actions would work much better.