Image: Nik Shazarina Bakti
That's a frightening amount even for the federal government!
So 27-year-old Nik Shazarina Bakti decided to lend a helping hand in the most ambitious way possible -- she started a crowdfunding campaign urging Malaysians to contribute and help reduce our national debt!
The law graduate and Sisters in Islam (SIS) legal officer set up a campaign page on GoGetFunding titled 'Please Help Malaysia!'.
According to her, all proceeds will be channeled to the Malaysian government, such as the Minister of Finance, at the end of the campaign.
A crowdfunding campaign like this will likely raise doubt among the public. So to assure people that there will be no foul play involved, she wrote that she would update the page with a daily summary of the PayPal account as post proof of the funds being channeled to the government once the campaign is over.
Nik Shazarina used the example of the time when Malaysians (or the people of Malaya back in the day) sacrificed their money and valuables to support our founding father Tunku Abdul Rahman on his mission to London to negotiate for independence.
"This time, we are doing it," she wrote.
"We can tell our children and grandchildren of this initiative that we all took part in to save Negaraku Malaysia."
Pre-GE14, communal efforts like 'Pulang Mengundi' and 'Undi Rabu' took the nation by storm and proved that we as a people could push for monumental changes if we put our backs into it.
Nik Shazarina hopes to achieve a similar result in a larger scale with this new campaign.
"If we could work together during the 14th General Election (remember we trusted anyone who could help us), I am sure we can work together for another round," she wrote.
At the time of writing, the 'Please Help Malaysia!' campaign has already raised USD3,633 (RM14,462) of its USD100,000 (RM398,100) goal with 92 donors.
The campaign ends on Tuesday, 31 July at 11.59pm UTC.
Observing her effort, social activist Marina Mahathir gave Nik Shazarina a shoutout in a Facebook post.
Petaling Jaya Member of Parliament (MP) and former Bersih 2.0 chairman Maria Chin Abdullah also lended her support on her Instagram page.
This is just one of the small ways we can help contribute to saving our nation. So if you'd like to make a contribution, you can do so at the crowdfunding page here.
Sumber This Malaysian Started A Crowdfunding Campaign To Help Reduce Our National Debt