Political economist Andrew Aeria has sent in this comment, which I think reveals how out of touch Najib is with the hard reality facing low-income families in the country:
First, petrol price increase. He said: Change your lifestyle.
Then, crime: Change your perception.
Now, laundry drying: Change your habit by buying a dryer or dry your laundry downstairs.
This guy has no inkling of the life of ordinary people. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and he has never known privation or hunger. So, when he talks, his ideas and suggestions are all in tune with his privileged world-view of his own creature comforts. Does he think everyone living in a high-rise can afford a laundry dryer?
He obviously knows nothing about the life situation of poor and less fortunate people. And this is the person who is going to be our PM? Najib is completely out of touch with Malaysian realities. He lives on the moon. He should just do us all Malaysians a favour and (spend more time abroad) in a first-world country like USA or Switzerland where he can indulge in his fantasy “life of luxury” world. We shall certainly not miss him or his ridiculous ideas.
One real solution would be to ask developers to put in more space for airing laundry when building low-cost homes. And get employers to pay our workers more (so they won’t have to live in such crammed high-rise flats) by setting a minimum wage.
Actually, drying clothes under the sun makes full use of the abundant solar energy that we have and it is thus more environmentally than dryers, which consume large amounts of electricity.
Check out this report from Malaysian Insider/South China Morning Post:
Housewives angered at ban against airing laundry in public
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 4 — Fuming housewives and ruling party politicians are at war over a new ruling that bans laundry from being hung out from windows and on balconies of high-rise flats in the capital.
The ruling takes effect from Jan 1 and was announced by Prime Minister-designate Datuk Seri Najib Razak, a blue-blooded Anglophile who has an eye for finery, on Tuesday.
Najib said punishment for breaching the rules would be introduced later if persuasion fails. A City Hall spokesman said at present offenders usually would be fined from RM50 to RM150.
Najib, however, wants housewives to dry clothes in designated areas on the ground, inside their homes or use driers to be provided by developers of existing or future units.
He said the haphazard way of drying laundry was adversely affecting the country’s image.
“We need to dry clothes [away] from public view,” he told Bernama, the official news agency.
City Hall estimates nearly 65 per cent of the capital’s 1.9 million people live in high-rises and most of them hang out their clothes from windows and on balconies. The situation is made worse by an additional 1 million foreign migrant workers who live in crammed one-room flats and also hang out their clothes to dry.
Tourists and better-off locals applaud the ban, but housewives are angry, saying the rule is a burden.
“We have to go up and down with our laundry and it is a burden,” said Kamariah Busut, community head at the crammed high-rise Sri Sentosa flats south of the capital.
“This is just another one of the rules the bosses have thought up without consulting us,” she said, adding a meeting would be held soon with opposition lawmakers to protest against the rule.
“These millionaires have many servants to do all their chores. They don’t know how poor people live,” she said.
“I cannot comply even if I want to,” said Thamarai Soosaipillai, 69, another Sri Sentosa resident. “I am old and can’t carry [much]. The lifts also break down frequently.”
Opposition lawmaker Tian Chua said the rule should not be hastily enforced without proper consultation. — South China Morning Post
Dryer mahal lah. It is like a dishwasher. Malaysians don’t use such things though they have caught on overseas quite well.
How to afford dryer? We are already paying nearly 50 sen more for petrol, so, per full tank, nearly RM20 goes down the drain or don’t know to whom. (40 litres x 50 sen)
Rm20 x the hundreds of thosands of cars on the road, wow, billions are involved.
Maybe we can use the billions to buy dryers or subsidise dryers. Some crony can take the contract to supply the dryers, buy the dryer for RM2000, inflate it, and sell RM5,000 to the condos and apartments.
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Imagine, a … mediocre leader from the most corrupt and extreme party is going to be the next PeeAme for Bolehland, how pathetic.
If someone can simply ask the people to change their perceptions against the high crime rate in Bolehland (most probably … in order to use this excuse to stop the implementation of IPCMC by Pak lah before he steps down), he will never understand the sufferings of the poor people (there are hundreds of thousands of Malays, Indians, and Chinese staying in the low cost flat and apartments).
Still wants NEP and this corrupt party who only knows how to use the name of Bumiputra for their own selfish gains.
Wake up, brothers and sisters out there.Just get rid of this … evil party when times comes.
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This is called PM material.
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Who is going to pay for the additional space? Space is already a premium, especially in Penang. Most, if not all, developers already run on almost a loss when they build Low-Medium Cost (LMC) apartments. Just ask any developers in Penang.
Minimum wage? There are those who support it, but there are those who are against it. I am still undecided, but first year economics teaches you supply and demand. A minimum wage is similar to a price floor, which creates additional burden and inefficiency in the market.
The more I read your blog, the more I think you disagree for the sake of opposing.
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A blue blooded Anglophile who has an eye for finery.
Hehe.
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The sight of our laundry embarass you issit?
Then how going to be PM of this country called Malaysia Bolihland ah?
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“These millionaires have many servants to do all their chores. They don’t know how poor people live,” Kamariah Busut said.
This confirms all along how out of touch UMNOputras from the Rakyat.
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How about — to alleviate the people’s suffering, the wise orang kaya comes up with the brilliant solution — orang kaya will very quickly buy each and every household in bolihland a………DRYER!!!
Spend fast, spend more — let’s stimulate the economy hoh! Deduct from EPF lo!
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I couldn’t resist commenting on this one, if only to lend some support to housewives and maids and all those who live in flats and have to hang out basket loads of laundry to dry and for the sake of the environment.
I agree that the policy of banning laundry drying in high rise apartments is about as daft as you can get. It becomes even more ridiculous when the reason given is that hanging out your laundry to dry tarnishes the image of the country.I’d rather think washing dirty linen in public and blowing up a foreign Mongolian woman’s body are what tarnish the country’s image more than hanging clean laundry out to dry.
In Singapore where more than 80% of the people live in high-rise HDB flats the government has even upgraded the equipment for drying the laundry. Anyone visiting Singapore marvel at the efficient manner it is done.
Asking a woman who lives on the 2oth floor of a flat to cart down basket loads of laundry to hang at designated areas on the ground is not only impractical but a foolish use of land. Not only that but it creates a new problem of theft. Would you hang out your more expensive clothes to dry in the designated spot when it would be safer to hang them just outside your apartment window and out of the reach of itchy fingers?
The solution is for the developers to provide the type of clotheslines used in Singapore. They are safe and efficient and absolutely practical. And please get the architects to plan ahead for it by designing the buildings to take into account a basic thing as drying areas for laundry and yes that another problematic must have in Malaysia gadget, the air conditioner.
I know what I am talking about because I have lived in Singapore and know how well planned their HDB housing is. And in the face of climate change when Western countries are discouraging the use of laundry dries, Malaysia Boleh has to do the reverse? Tsk. Tsk.
Leaders must have more important business to attend to like solving the economic recession than upsetting housewives with their silly ideas after all housewives are the real experts in drying laundry not those who have probably never got within an inch of a washing machine.
I suggest the housewives invite the laundry expert in the government to visit their flats and show them how he would do it. And if he still thinks his idea is better than theirs or mine than he deserves to be the Laundry King! Until then housewives should all march on to Parliament and not give in to a silly idea.
Laundry driers are anti-environment because they use energy and are a silly piece of equipment in Malaysia where you can dry clothes in a few hours even out of the sun. Laundry dries are for temperate countries where it is hard to dry laundry in Winter and in Summer no one uses the laundry drier. But obviously someone who does not have to do his own laundry wouldn’t know would he? Talk about tarnishing the image of Malaysia…
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I feel sorry for the rakyat to have a waiting to be PM guy talking like that. This guy have no inkling how the poor lives. Well, He was born with a silver spoon in his big mouth. With $$$, servants, luxuries you can think of surround him from the day he was born, what do you expect from him. And now with his name linked to the horrible murder of the Mongolian woman and many other questionable $$$$ projects etc…, I really wonder what the country will become when he takes over. God help Malaysia
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Looks like these … are only capable of adding problems for the RAKYAT to digest. Now the method of even drying our daily laundry can be an offence!
How damn pathetic!
Can’t the design of high rise be looked into to solve this problem?
To maximise profits, high rise are desinged to be compact from inside out, utilising every inch of space! Can’t the inner part of buildings be vacant to create an ‘air well’ effect thus all laundry will be out of sight externally? Where laundry can be hung along the external walls of the corridors?
Won’t be surprise the master bedroom of this Najib is bigger than the flat/apartment of most city dwellers!
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BN is doomed…
You can beat up anti-ISA protestors. Hell, you can even lock up innocent journalists under ISA. But…
MESS WITH HOUSEWIVES AT YOUR OWN PERIL.
“Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.” – William Congreve
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Another Weapon of Media Diversion. How’s Bala and Saiful? How’s recession? How’s Valuecap? How’s Eurocopter? How? How?
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Can some one advise where can i buy a drier than can fit into a Malaysian size house. I have been trying to get one for a long time.
Even if one has the money, it is not easy to find one that can fit into the space in an apartment together with a washing machine.
Najib is an elite who has never know the life of an ordinary family.
He would not know the problems of ordinary people.
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Tu lah…bagus la tu…Najib cares what Tourist want….But burden the rakyat…la macam pepatah lama tu,,,,hmmm ape ah…ah lantak la siapa kisah…padahal rakyat menderita…tengok sekarang…melayu kena.,..cina kena…india pun kena…belilah dryer dari brand yang bagus yek..
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Don’t forget the cost of electricity to operate laundry driers. It’s worse than operating and air-conditioner!
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instead of giving views of ways to combat rising crime rate like mat rempit and more, all he can talk about is petty issues on where to dry your clothes and changing your perceptions….a very promising leader…scary!!
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What is the word? Should we call him stupid or ignorant?
Drying clothes in a designated public drying area? He must be joking. People will find all their bras and undies missing. LOLLLLLLLLLL.
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Guys
Will you ever grow up ? Just reading the comments above shows the shallowness of the Malaysian mindset. Accusations are thrown without a basis, comments made without logic or reasons while the real issue was not discussed and debated. Every issue is viewed from a political point of view.
We want the same rights as the First world yet we do not show maturity or behave in a responsible manners as a citizen.
Take this issue for example. In many developed countries such practice is not just banned but also viewed as uncivilised. If we want to move forward as a country, we need to adopt progressive practices.
In many other aspects Malaysians are quick to point out the practices in other developed countries that we should follow. But when something is adopted that requires a more responsible behaviour, we become very defensive.
Remember, change begins with you……
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we are so dead !!! come March next year, an *** is going to run this country !!!
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hey najib, how to stop all those perverts from stealing my wife’s sexy and expensive, VICTORIA SECRETS, LINGERIE, thongs, panties, bras etc. HOW WHEN THEY ARE STOLEN CAN I come and see you for scholar-ship to go to londen to buy them back, will you pay the air-fare. … You see A persons intelligence is judged when they make statements, TILL NOW, after hearing all the statements from this moron future PM to be, I say ‘DON’T OPEN YOUR MOUTH AND TALKKOLK AND WE MALAYSIANS WILL NOT CALL YOU STUPID. What kind of a Pm -in-waiting are you, you seem to be living in a dreamworld and in the clouds, maybe the lack of oxygen AT those lofty heights has made you into a fugue state or what have you been smoking! That malay lady gave a correct insight into the mentality of our ‘ORANG KAYA’ umno. No wonder with geniusses like this as leaders who needs enemies, these CLOWNS WILL DESTROY THIS COUNTRY ALL BY THEMSELVES. Helloooo anybody home najib, buying clothes-dryers in the tropics is akin to pouring salt into the SEA. I have met members of the najib clan, all of them have these put-on ENGRAND SLANG AND ATTITUDES, I STILL REMEMBER HOW HE BEGGED FOR support in the clan gathering in KUANTAN in 2003 from his relatives to help him get support to become the DPM, when PAK LAH did not announce his deputy, how he begged ….
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Well it certainly looks like the person making this new policy have no inkling how the ordinary folks live. Even laundry put out to dry in terrace houses cannot escape from the sight of others. So how, ban that too?
For those living in high rise homes like flats, apartments and condos(especially those built before the imposition of this ban) may have no choice but to buy a clothes dryer for laundry drying purpose. This would be a burden on the lower income folks when the cost of the dryer could take up their one month salary.
N should understand that people are complaining or objecting for reasons that affect their daily life. I live in a condo now and I know what I am talking about.
If there has been proper planning, where proper facilities are provided, today’s ban would not be necessary. So who should we blame? Folks who chose to live in high-rise homes, the developers or the approving authorities?
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all tis rich people,where they now how the poor raayats are living.trying very hard to earn the next meal sometimes.Don’t all tis rich a*** h*** knows,the poor people are trying very hard to pay for their electric bills which had gone up.are they paying for the increase in electric bill for the dryers.
Even now,they are going to make money from the petrol prices.Imagine a net crude oil exporting country doing tis!
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… Who takes care of your laundry? 50 maids paid by the taxpayers money?
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Someone here sounds like part of the new initiative to get senior citizens to write positive comments in blogs.
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