Stop your denial syndrome, Patriot tells govt
PETALING JAYA: The National Patriots Association (Patriot) today hit out at Economic Affairs Minister Azmin Ali for his quick denial of a United Nations expert’s claim that Malaysia has understated the extent of its poverty.
Instead of dismissing it as “baseless”, Patriot said Azmin should have asked his officers to reassess the statistics and the basis of the poverty line calculation.
On Friday, UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights Philip Alston disputed Malaysia’s assertion that it has nearly eliminated poverty, saying that official figures were inaccurate and did not reflect realities on the ground.
Following an 11-day visit to Malaysia, Alston noted, among others, the dire need for the country to re-evaluate its national poverty line of RM980 per month (or RM 8 per day) for a family of four.
He also called on the authorities to devise a poverty-alleviating framework that took into account the needs of marginalised communities such as migrant workers, refugees, stateless people and the disabled.
In a statement today, Patriot president Arshad Raji said the denial syndrome of government officials, when suddenly caught with a blunder, must stop.
“Common sense will tell that a family of four will find it impossible to survive with a meager income of RM980 a month in the Klang Valley,” he said.
The World Bank has worked out a fairly objective measurement of Absolute Poverty based on Purchasing Power Parity .
ReplyDeleteThis helps account for inflation rate over the years, differences in cost of basic necessities.
Not sure what the PPP rate of absolute poverty is in Malaysia.
Mind you, this is Absolute Poverty we are talking about. Insufficient income even for basic survival necessities and some form of basic accommodation.
From Absolute Poverty upwards , there is still a large range of Relative Poverty, where people may be often short of resources and money but they are not destitude.
To be fair, you cannot judge just based on a few days visit to KL.
The number is a median for the whole of Malaysia.
The absolute poverty income level in Rural Perak is certainly very different from Kuala Lumpur.