Rahmah Menu: A noble effort, but not a long-term solution

RECENTLY, the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living introduced the "Menu Rahmah" campaign across the country. It aims to ensure that the B40 group can afford to buy food at restaurants at a reasonable price. Restaurants are encouraged to offer lunch or dinner priced at only RM5 for the B40 group.

Alhamdulillah, newspaper reports state that many restaurants have participated in this campaign, especially local ones. It will be interesting to know how long they will continue to offer this `Rahmah Menu'. Unfortunately, and honestly, I expect their participation to be brief. The reason is many restaurants need help with rising cost problems themselves.

The main reason for this is the nature of our overall economic system. In this system, the banking sector will create a lot of currency every time it gives loans to borrowers, whether from the public, private or household sectors. In our country, the amount of loans offered is almost RM10 billion per month. All these loans will increase the money supply in the system, leading to a situation where the currency's value will fall in the long term. The outcome is a situation where the price of goods and services will constantly increase.

For those who have forgotten or don't know because they are young, the cost of lunch or dinner in the 1970s and 80s was less than RM3 only, which is half the price of "Menu Rahmah". But those prices could not last long when the financial and economic system continued to grow. The underlying factor is the tendency among many people in our country to borrow from the banking sector for various purposes.

At the same time, debt-laden organisations are reluctant to raise wage rates. Therefore, many Malaysians face a situation where the price of goods and services increases faster than the rate of increase in wages or salaries they receive, resulting in a cost of living problem.

This problem will continue if the debt-based financial system remains in place. That is also why the cost-of-living problem exists in other countries, including so-called 'developed' countries, even though they have more economic experts and the practice of corruption is minimal.

The long-term solution to the cost-of-living problem is to change our economic system so that the debt industry is no longer the axis of economic activity. In that way, the level of debt in society will also decrease.

When the community is not burdened with debt problems, they can contribute funds to institutions that help people such as waqf, Baitul mal and others. With that, the living conditions of the community will be better. However, this situation is unlikely to happen if the banking industry, which in reality takes advantage of the community's need for financial assistance, continues to dominate our country's financial system.

The situation where the institution of 'sadaqah or infaq' dominates the economic system has already been exemplified to us by the Prophet SAW. In his time, the time of the companions, and the time of the Abbasid and Ottoman Caliphates, the problem of rising prices of goods, even though it happened, was not on the same scale we are experiencing now, where many are unable even to start a family.

In those days, society's values were different compared to now. As a result of the teachings propagated by Rasulullah SAW and his companions, the Muslim community at that time was very focused on seeking God's pleasure by spending or donating their wealth to help fellow citizens, especially the poor. Moreover, the banking industry did not exist since it was banned and even seen as despicable. Only people in the throes of life will go into debt.

The situation then is very different from now. People are materialistic now and want to live in luxury and pursue material wealth, even through debt. Many people live beyond their means and like to consume using funds borrowed from banks. As a result, many are stuck with a lot of debt and cannot afford to donate and spend their wealth in the way of God. So it is not surprising that the assets of Riba institutions in our country amount to almost RM4 trillion or four thousand billion compared to the total assets of the Waqf sector, which only amount to less than RM10 billion.

In summary, what is needed to solve the cost of living problem in the long term is a change in society's values and, after that, a change in the economic system practised so that it is precisely in line with the teachings of Islam. Although noble, the "Menu Rahmah" campaign is only a short-term solution. It is like putting a bandaid on a person's head with a headache due to a more severe problem such as high blood pressure or brain cancer.

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* Prof Dr Nazari Ismail is Honorary Professor at Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Malaya

** The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of Astro AWANI