Commenting on the advice by certain political leaders to either avoid tolled roads or take on a second job as a means to ease one’s financial burdens, former Perdana fellow and Asia’s top debater Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman said youth like him were more concerned with the rising cost of living rather than politics and unwarranted advice such as this was seen as being insensitive to the plight of the people.

“When we are suffering so much, you go… ‘work two jobs’, it’s like you are brushing aside the issue. We are suffering and this is partially caused by clear wastage in the government, as well as misallocation of resources.

“And your answer to these (forms of) wastage is ‘I will add on to your burden rather than resolve them’. It’s just insensitive,” he told FMT in an exclusive interview recently.

Syed’s comments were in direct reference to “advice” dished out by Umno minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan, who told the people to “wake up early to avoid tolled roads” and deputy minister Ahmad Maslan, who said, “work two jobs” to make ends meet.

Syed Saddiq, a Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) scholar, said he was told that Mara scholarships would also be reduced following the government’s recent move to slash allocations for higher education.

He noted however that allocations for the Prime Minister’s Department had been increased, a move he labelled as “prioritising political convenience.”

“The Federal Government choosing to prioritise political convenience over education is disheartening. Fine, you (the government) want to make universities financially independent, but fund scholarships through other channels.

“Education… surviving… putting a roof above our heads – these are issues that affect us a lot. You can focus on funding so many other things such as political issues, but you are neglecting the issues which are of priority to Malaysians,” he said.