DATUK Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the one-off RM100 Sumbangan Asas Rahmah (Sara) appreciation aid for individuals aged 18 and above is not the sole solution but among the Government’s measures to address the people’s cost-of-living pressures.
The Prime Minister said the aid, disbursed from August 31, serves as a supplement to the MySara and Sumbangan Tunai Rahmah (STR) programmes implemented to ease the burden of living expenses.
“When we talk about Sara (appreciation aid), indeed some criticise and say ‘what can RM100 do?’ But they forget that Sara (one-off) is an addition to the MySara programme, an addition to STR. How much have we given to the people? Nine million individuals.
“When I discussed this with my friends abroad, especially Asean leaders, they asked — out of a population of 34 million, we spend RM15 billion to assist nine million. Most of them said they could not afford to do this,” he said in a recorded video speech shared on Facebook reported by Bernama.
Anwar delivered the speech at the closing ceremony of the Kedah edition of the Madani Rakyat Programme at the Baling District Council Sports Complex in Baling yesterday. In his speech yesterday, Anwar was also reported to have said that the Sara initiative is admired by foreign leaders, even though they acknowledged it is something difficult to replicate.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Finance said the seventh day of the Sara Appreciation initiative went smoothly, recording total sales of RM100 million involving 1.7 million recipients as of 10.30pm, with a 99.9 per cent success rate in transactions.
The Sara Appreciation Aid or one-off Sara, announced in conjunction with National Day 2025, benefits 22 million people and involves an additional RM2 billion, bringing the total allocation for STR and Sara this year to RM15 billion — the highest in the nation’s cash assistance history. – September 7, 2025
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