PREPARING a national budget is never simply a matter of adding up numbers, allocating funds and announcing new initiatives.
It is an exercise in balancing competing needs, managing public expectations and deciding who receives assistance when the government cannot satisfy every demand.
At the heart of the challenge is a simple reality: in an economy where resources are finite but people’s needs are virtually limitless, someone will inevitably feel left out.
That said, a recent post on Threads has been getting quite the attention for its rather fiery topic.
Netizen prasad36.96 in the post wondered why the majority of the B40 community hated Anwar Ibrahim.
His post was akin to a flood gate of emotions, for it has since received over an outpouring of comments and shares.
Echoing this thoughts were netizen aarifsepet who pointed out that the B40 people are the ones who received the most aid from Anwar.
Another netizen conjectured that the B40 loves to have their aid in cash, and not in digital format.
Perhaps Anwar should start handing them out in green or red packets, for the sake of optics.
On that note, temanharianku suggested that the subsidies be eliminated as it is one of the causes of the rakyat becoming lazy.
temanharianku added that the government should learn from Indonesia whose citizens became lazier as they received more and more subsidies.
Also, _intanardy lamented that the B40 do not have the capacity to understand complex issues. “They can only relate to race and religious sentiments,” she said.
Netizen hunmylovee_ added that he once argued with the B40, and he realised that they were rather sore over the fact that they couldn’t withdraw money from EPF.
However, another netizen pointed out that the mentality of the B40 was not confined only to the B40, but also the M40 and T20.
Fusomisa further made a mysterious comment that the B40 are the only ones who knew the story line from early on until now.
Fusomisa did not make any further elaboration regarding his comment.
Also, several netizens who identified themselves as B40 also voiced their support for Anwar Ibrahim.
So is it accurate to broad brush that the B40 hated Anwar? Are there any statistics to support this statement?
Ultimately, the debate over why some B40 Malaysians remain dissatisfied despite receiving government assistance highlights a bigger question about the relationship between public policy and public expectations.
Financial aid may ease immediate pressures, but it does not necessarily address deeper concerns over wages, the cost of living, job security and the perceived fairness of government decisions.
At the same time, dismissing an entire income group as ungrateful, lazy or incapable of understanding complex issues risks overlooking the very struggles that assistance programmes are meant to address.
The B40 is not a homogenous group, and neither are the M40 and T20, whose political views and expectations differ from one household to another.—Oct 14, 2026
