Learn to use AI to do fact check

Asking the right prompt is important. I hope after this, we will not be so gullible and believe everything we read. 

Here is How you do it! 

Assuming you receive this rubbish in The Coverage. It is intended to strike at your raw nerves especially if you are in the T20. AI will broaden your knowledge and it can only provide you witn an unbiased response (the yellow font is done intentionally): 

The Coverage Media 

*Anwar, T20 Is Not Your Personal ATM – Stop Treating Them As Cash Cows* 

*Before reaching deeper into T20 pockets, the government should return the RM 33.3 billion in overpaid taxes to the T20*. 

T20 Are Willing to Fund the Nation — But Not Your Publicity Stunts 

T20 Malaysians are not against contributing to the country. 

They are willing to pay more if the money goes to critical areas such as healthcare, hospitals, doctors, and nurses. 

What they will not accept is being treated as your personal ATM to finance vanity projects, publicity stunts, and mismanagement. 

It is not okay to punish them every time the government runs out of money because of reckless spending and poor financial management. 

Before spending on any unnecessary project, think twice. 

Do not squander billions on prestige projects and image-building exercises, only to return later and squeeze the T20 even harder to cover up your own failures. 

The T20 segment—Malaysia's highest-income earners—is not an unlimited cash machine for the government to plunder whenever fiscal deficits arise. 

Whenever the administration finds itself short of funds, the reflexive response is the same: remove subsidies for the T20, raise taxes, and invent new levies to squeeze them further. 

The T20 already contribute up to 85% of total tax revenue. 

Before targeting their subsidies, the government must first demonstrate fiscal discipline by slashing its own unnecessary expenditures. 

On one hand, the government claims there is "not enough money." 

On the other, it spends with abandon. 

The reconstruction of Carcosa Seri Negara at a reported cost of up to RM 600 million. 

The Kota Madani project, estimated at RM 4 billion. 

The Sara initiative (RM 2 billion), widely perceived as an attention-seeking publicity stunt. 

Ongoing Madani Mart events pushed by Minister Fuziah Saleh. 

The Bestinet contract worth up to RM 3.2 billion, despite the existence of in-house developed systems. 

Proliferation of billboards funded by ministry budgets under Ramanan. 

Lavish international humanitarian donations funded by Malaysian taxpayers. 

These are not essential expenditures. 

If citizens must tighten their belts, the government should first trim its own bloated operations. 

A good start would be reducing the oversized cabinet filled with redundant ministries and overlapping functions. 

Revoking excessive MP petrol allowances, aggressively tackling the estimated RM 122 billion in annual leakages and corruption within the civil service, and ending crony-protective policies in the EV sector would also deliver meaningful savings. 

The fuel subsidy bill continues to balloon, yet the government makes it harder for Malaysians to switch to electric vehicles. 

Protectionist policies shielding local cronies keep high-quality EVs expensive. 

The RM100,000, RM200,000 and RM300,000 minimum EV price policy is severely slowing down EV adoption in Malaysia. 

One month of fuel subsidies (approximately RM 5 billion) could fund the construction of around 24,000 highway-grade DC fast chargers or over 600,000 AC wallboxes. 

Critics often label the T20 as selfish for resisting further burden-sharing. 

This accusation rings hollow. How much more can reasonably be extracted from a group already paying the vast majority of taxes? 

Many in the T20 are prepared to contribute more—if the money genuinely improves critical public services such as healthcare, hospitals, doctors, and nurses. 

Yet the government has simultaneously wasted billions on vanity projects and cut RM 3.1 billion from the Health Ministry budget. 

This is not equitable burden-sharing; it is mismanagement. 

Before any further subsidy rationalisation, the government owes Malaysians clear definitions. 

What exactly constitutes T20, T15, T10, or T5? 

Is it based on individual income, household income, disposable income after deductions, geographic location, or cost of living? 

Without transparent, fair criteria, these labels become arbitrary tools for selective punishment rather than sound policy instruments. 

Most importantly, the administration should remember its own political reality. 

A significant portion of its support base comes from the T20 and M40 brackets—the very groups now facing repeated squeezes. 

These are the productive middle and upper-middle classes who helped bring the current government to power. 

Punishing them after the fact is not just bad economics; it is poor politics and a betrayal of those who trusted in reform. 

Malaysia does not lack revenue—it lacks prudent management. 

Before reaching deeper into the pockets of the T20, the government must: 

Ruthlessly cut waste, leakages, and prestige projects. 

Streamline the civil service and cabinet. 

Reform subsidies with transparent targeting. 

Prioritise healthcare and essential services over publicity stunts. 

Type a prompt or a set of specific questions to ask Ai to do the fact check fot you. In this instance I typed this in Microsoft Gemini:

Is it true that the government owes the rich RM33 billion ?Who could have written this piece about Anwar using T20 as his personal atm? WHO owns The Coverage Media? 

Two Seconds later…

The article you shared from The Coverage Media touches on several highly debated fiscal issues in Malaysia. To answer your questions, we need to separate the facts about the RM33 billion and budget cuts from the ownership and nature of the platform itself.

1. Is it true the government owes the T20 RM33 billion?

This figure appears to be a selective or slightly dated interpretation of tax refunds.

• The Context: In late 2025 and early 2026, the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) acknowledged a significant backlog in tax refunds. However, the RM33 billion figure likely refers to the total pool of overpaid taxes (mostly corporate and individual) accumulated over several years, not just a debt specifically to the "rich."

• The Status: As of March 2026, the government has committed to settling all outstanding refunds up to the year 2024 by the end of 2026. RM56 billion was already refunded between 2023 and 2025.

• The Nuance: While it is true that many taxpayers (including T20 and companies) have faced delays in getting their money back, calling it "money owed to the rich" is a rhetorical framing. Much of this is due to administrative hurdles like outdated bank details or ongoing audits.

2. Who owns The Coverage Media?

The Coverage is known as an independent social news portal. It does not have a transparent "About Us" page listing a single corporate owner or a primary editor, which is common for "viral-style" news sites in Malaysia.

• The Style: It frequently publishes high-octane, opinionated content that critiques the administration, often using "citizen journalism" or uncredited op-eds.

• Authorship: The piece you provided reads like a unattributed editorial or a guest contribution. Because the site operates as an aggregator/portal, it often publishes "viral" perspectives without a specific byline to protect the author or to represent the site’s collective "voice."

3. Fact-Checking the Claims in the Piece

The article blends real budget figures with critical commentary:

Claim	Fact Check
RM600m for Carcosa Seri Negara	Mostly True. Khazanah Nasional allocated RM600 million for "Warisan KL," which includes Carcosa Seri Negara plus six other historic buildings like the Sultan Abdul Samad complex.
RM3.1bn cut from Health Ministry	Partially True/Misleading.While some specific development sub-budgets were adjusted, the overall Health budget for 2024–2026 has actually seen record-high totalallocations. Critics often point to specific "cuts" in medical supplies or maintenance to argue the point.
T20 pays 85% of taxes	Accurate. Official data from the Ministry of Finance consistently shows that a small percentage of top earners (T20) and companies contribute the vast majority of personal income tax revenue.

Summary of the Platform's Tone

The Coverage Media often uses a "populist" tone to appeal to the frustrations of the middle and upper-middle class (M40/T20). The argument that the T20 is being used as an "ATM" is a common political narrative used to protest the removal of fuel and electricity subsidies.

The piece was likely written by a columnist or editor within the portal who specializes in anti-establishment commentary, designed to spark social media engagement among those feeling the "squeeze" of subsidy rationalization.

How to download Gemini:

Go to your play Store or App Store to download Gemini 

That’s all it takes! 

You can also speak to Gemini in any language and it will respond to you. Just click this (where the arrow is pointing to) and say something :

If you click on the microphone (looks like a flower bud above) and ask a question, AI will automatically type for you.

Always do fact check to avoid being gullible like in the goats in this social experiment: