Malaysia’s official poverty rate dropped from 49% in 1970 to just 0.4% in 2016.
You and I know that's bunk.
You know what the poverty threshold is? RM980 per month per household of 4.
In no alternate universe is that a reasonable baseline.
Obviously, the UN human rights dogsbody disputes this. For the first time in a long while, I will say, rightly so. Even if it comes from an organisation that is widely deemed as a toothless tiger.
OutSyed The Box puts his views forward here. He has some very good points, mind you.
On a more serious note, Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj of PPSM addressed this topic even back in June: What will it take to address poverty in Malaysia?
One of the most interesting questions he pulls up is this: Why does the Bumiputra community still make up some 80% of the bottom 40% of the population (the B40) when they only constitute about 65% of the population?
Read the piece by Dr Jeyakumar yourself.
Interestingly, the United Nations Year of Reconciliation 2009 encouraged exploration on the topic of urban poverty. It looks like after 10 years, nothing much has changed. That is a depressing thought.
It's going to be the hallowed 2020 next year - year of fully developed nation status. Are we even ready for that?
Showing posts with label Poverty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Poverty. Show all posts
Friday, 23 August 2019
Friday, 30 November 2018
Changing The World
Perhaps changing the world is too tall an order; let's start with the country.
Of course, if you read Haris Ibrahim, he recommended starting with the government.
That has been achieved. May 2018 proved historic for us in so many ways.
Malaysia is home to a very large middle class population, and a fairly sizeable upper class one. You and I probably have very little connection with the poorer members of society, and thus have no idea of the obstacles they face.
For one, I had no idea the minimum wage was RM1050.
The minimum wage has not increased because to quote the official line, "it will be problematic for industries, and affect the competitiveness of the nation".
Let's break that down.
The poor are being targeted because everyone knows that they do not have options like the rest of us, and therefore, will always remain in this country and work for whatever we offer them.
Now, you may say that the economy must be protected at all costs. Even Donald Trump ran his campaign on promises to make America great again. Most people believe that he meant economically powerful.
Obviously, that is why he is bringing fossil fuels (not just oil but coal too!!) back, and enforcing tariffs on China because he correctly perceives them to be of great competition.
He will eventually run the country to the ground, but that is another subject altogether.
America is a case study on what not to do. They spent most of a century oppressing their poor, even though ALL Americans started out with humble beginnings. Europeans didn't migrate to America because they were wealthy.
Quite the contrary. They migrated because they were either oppressed in their home country or experienced famine. They just discovered opportunities in America and it made them wealthy.
Anyway, the reason I am bringing this up, is because I firmly believe that we as a nation, will not be successful unless we raise the lowest of our members.
Currently we are taking advantage of their helplessness instead of empowering them to go on and provide more value. There's a nasty word for it: EXPLOIT.
Malaysians are happy to migrate to foreign countries (or greener pastures) because they pay better, or are more stable economically, socially and politically. Ironically, these countries pay a high minimum wage, but you don't see Malaysians objecting to it.
Why not, instead of migrating, adopt the principles of these stable nations, and improve the nation we live in and make it better?
Just a thought.
Related:
Activist group calls for anti-poverty law
Of course, if you read Haris Ibrahim, he recommended starting with the government.
That has been achieved. May 2018 proved historic for us in so many ways.
Malaysia is home to a very large middle class population, and a fairly sizeable upper class one. You and I probably have very little connection with the poorer members of society, and thus have no idea of the obstacles they face.
For one, I had no idea the minimum wage was RM1050.
The minimum wage has not increased because to quote the official line, "it will be problematic for industries, and affect the competitiveness of the nation".
Let's break that down.
The poor are being targeted because everyone knows that they do not have options like the rest of us, and therefore, will always remain in this country and work for whatever we offer them.
Now, you may say that the economy must be protected at all costs. Even Donald Trump ran his campaign on promises to make America great again. Most people believe that he meant economically powerful.
Obviously, that is why he is bringing fossil fuels (not just oil but coal too!!) back, and enforcing tariffs on China because he correctly perceives them to be of great competition.
He will eventually run the country to the ground, but that is another subject altogether.
America is a case study on what not to do. They spent most of a century oppressing their poor, even though ALL Americans started out with humble beginnings. Europeans didn't migrate to America because they were wealthy.
Quite the contrary. They migrated because they were either oppressed in their home country or experienced famine. They just discovered opportunities in America and it made them wealthy.
Anyway, the reason I am bringing this up, is because I firmly believe that we as a nation, will not be successful unless we raise the lowest of our members.
Currently we are taking advantage of their helplessness instead of empowering them to go on and provide more value. There's a nasty word for it: EXPLOIT.
Malaysians are happy to migrate to foreign countries (or greener pastures) because they pay better, or are more stable economically, socially and politically. Ironically, these countries pay a high minimum wage, but you don't see Malaysians objecting to it.
Why not, instead of migrating, adopt the principles of these stable nations, and improve the nation we live in and make it better?
Just a thought.
Related:
Activist group calls for anti-poverty law
Friday, 4 November 2011
Stateless
According to Al-Jazeera, about 40,000 ethnic Indians born and bred in Malaysia do not have any form of identification.
I have written about this topic a number of times.
Frankly, I've railed about how having no form of identification is a violation of rights, because these children do not get any education. I have also lamented on what a social impediment these stateless people grow up with.
Heck, I've even complained that no political party takes this group seriously enough to correct this situation.
The truth is, ethnic Indians comprise nearly eight per cent of the Malaysian population, yet an inability to obtain the proper documents has rendered generations stateless.
They have never been to India as they don't own birth certificates or identity cards, much less passports. Neither have they been to any other country.
And yet, they are not considered citizens of Malaysia.
Watch the video: Recognizing Malaysia's stateless Indians
I have written about this topic a number of times.
Frankly, I've railed about how having no form of identification is a violation of rights, because these children do not get any education. I have also lamented on what a social impediment these stateless people grow up with.
Heck, I've even complained that no political party takes this group seriously enough to correct this situation.
The truth is, ethnic Indians comprise nearly eight per cent of the Malaysian population, yet an inability to obtain the proper documents has rendered generations stateless.
They have never been to India as they don't own birth certificates or identity cards, much less passports. Neither have they been to any other country.
And yet, they are not considered citizens of Malaysia.
Watch the video: Recognizing Malaysia's stateless Indians
Friday, 22 October 2010
Trying To Obtain A Birth Certificate
Some of you may remember a previous post about Malaysian-born children without birth certificates.
I still find it shocking that in this day and age, there are children in this country who are stateless and belong nowhere. They do not exist in the eyes of our government.
These are three of the eight children I wrote about earlier. The little boy peeking out from behind his sister has no birth certificate.
He hasn't attained school-going age yet, but if he doesn't somehow obtain a birth certificate, he doesn't obtain an education.
Which is why my friend was so keen on ensuring these kids make their foray into government records. He dragged the young 25 year old mother and her unregistered children to the Registry department.
But trying to get a birth certificate is not easy. Firstly there is a fine for not registering within the stipulated period.
Secondly, you need a witness to swear under oath that he/she was present when the child was born.
And last but not least, the civil servants in the district were uncooperative. They told the mother to go all the way to Seremban to register their birth.
It takes over an hour to get from Kuala Pilah to Seremban. There is limited public transportation, if any.
Perhaps the civil servants were acting within their rightful jurisdiction. But the manner in which they regarded this uneducated, poverty-stricken woman was out of line.
It is not merely the politicians in the state level that exceed their boundaries. So do those in the local council.
We need to have more say and control over the government and administration of the local council for things to improve.
I still find it shocking that in this day and age, there are children in this country who are stateless and belong nowhere. They do not exist in the eyes of our government.
These are three of the eight children I wrote about earlier. The little boy peeking out from behind his sister has no birth certificate.
He hasn't attained school-going age yet, but if he doesn't somehow obtain a birth certificate, he doesn't obtain an education.
Which is why my friend was so keen on ensuring these kids make their foray into government records. He dragged the young 25 year old mother and her unregistered children to the Registry department.
But trying to get a birth certificate is not easy. Firstly there is a fine for not registering within the stipulated period.
Secondly, you need a witness to swear under oath that he/she was present when the child was born.
And last but not least, the civil servants in the district were uncooperative. They told the mother to go all the way to Seremban to register their birth.
It takes over an hour to get from Kuala Pilah to Seremban. There is limited public transportation, if any.
Perhaps the civil servants were acting within their rightful jurisdiction. But the manner in which they regarded this uneducated, poverty-stricken woman was out of line.
It is not merely the politicians in the state level that exceed their boundaries. So do those in the local council.
We need to have more say and control over the government and administration of the local council for things to improve.
Saturday, 20 March 2010
No Identification Is A Violation Of Rights
It was a tough decision - choosing between going for the SABM roadshow in East Malaysia or going for this trip down to Kuala Pilah to visit a family of rubber tappers.
Perhaps you’ll call me a katak di bawah tempurung - a severe case of living in a bubble and not knowing what happens - not on the other side of the world but - just approximately 130km south of Kuala Lumpur.
The truth is, I didn’t know rubber tappers still existed.
I knew there was a huge demand for rubber early last century, but the textbooks I owned when I was still languishing in secondary school told me that it dropped drastically when synthetic rubber emerged.
Evidently, there is still a demand, and rubber tappers still harvest latex everyday.
The group I was with was organizing a camp for the children of the rubber tappers, and I had been recruited as the games mistress (ahem) cum arts & crafts director. Okay, I flatter myself with fancy titles, but it’s the truth.
I was also recruited to do a number of odd jobs, one of which was registration. Yes, this group I work with certainly knows how to squeeze every bit of manual labour out of innocent souls and in return, I seem to be a glutton for punishment.
But I digress.
Registration was an interesting affair. It involved getting down the details of participants as they showed up and writing down their names on stickers, which functioned as name tags.
Under normal circumstances, that is generally an easy task.
I was to discover that life wasn’t as simple as it looked.
“What’s your name?” I asked the first cheerful participant in Tamil. “Krebfojgwn,” he mumbled.
“How do you spell it?” I asked. I was met with a blank stare. And then he proceeded to spit out a string of letters that did not remotely resemble the name he had stated.
A drop of sweat rolled down my brow. The camp was held at the house of a rubber tapper and her husband who had kindly volunteered their premises.
However, the zinc roof and blazing heat were certainly not a decent combination for a KL born-and-bred, air-conditioned-office employee like Yours Truly.
I later discovered that the abovementioned cheerful participant was named Kajenthiran. He was 10 years old and had 8 living siblings, the youngest of whom was 2 months old. His mother was barely 25 years old.
Did he attend school? I wanted to know. He assured me he did. However, a couple of his brothers didn’t.
“Why?” I probed.
“No letter,” was the simple reply. What that meant, was that his brothers did not have birth certificates and because they didn’t, they were refused admission into school.
They weren’t the only ones. There were a number of adults in their 20s who had neither birth certificates nor identity cards (MYKAD).
What that essentially meant, was while they were born and had lived all their lives in Malaysia - never having ever gone out of the country - they had never made it into the records of the administration.
The government had no clue they existed. More likely, the BN government didn’t even care.
After all, how were a bunch of illiterate rubber tappers of ethnic Indian origin going to ensure BN’s 50-odd years of reign in Malaysia? (and perhaps another 50 to come)
That is why the government wraps itself in copious amounts of red tape to discourage applicants from trying to register after the two-month registration period given for parents to register their children upon birth.
This is not a new issue. The Human Rights Party (founded by Uthayakumar of HINDRAF fame) rails on and on about this.
Some parents are irresponsible. And some were caught up with issues and failed to make the deadline.
Whatever the reason, it is the constitutional right of every child of Malaysia to own his/her place in the nation. To be provided education like everyone else.
But these rightful citizens have been denied this right and will continue to be denied as long as both the ruling coalition and the opposition turn a blind eye to their plight.
Perhaps you’ll call me a katak di bawah tempurung - a severe case of living in a bubble and not knowing what happens - not on the other side of the world but - just approximately 130km south of Kuala Lumpur.
The truth is, I didn’t know rubber tappers still existed.
I knew there was a huge demand for rubber early last century, but the textbooks I owned when I was still languishing in secondary school told me that it dropped drastically when synthetic rubber emerged.
Evidently, there is still a demand, and rubber tappers still harvest latex everyday.
The group I was with was organizing a camp for the children of the rubber tappers, and I had been recruited as the games mistress (ahem) cum arts & crafts director. Okay, I flatter myself with fancy titles, but it’s the truth.
I was also recruited to do a number of odd jobs, one of which was registration. Yes, this group I work with certainly knows how to squeeze every bit of manual labour out of innocent souls and in return, I seem to be a glutton for punishment.
But I digress.
Registration was an interesting affair. It involved getting down the details of participants as they showed up and writing down their names on stickers, which functioned as name tags.
Under normal circumstances, that is generally an easy task.
I was to discover that life wasn’t as simple as it looked.
“What’s your name?” I asked the first cheerful participant in Tamil. “Krebfojgwn,” he mumbled.
“How do you spell it?” I asked. I was met with a blank stare. And then he proceeded to spit out a string of letters that did not remotely resemble the name he had stated.
A drop of sweat rolled down my brow. The camp was held at the house of a rubber tapper and her husband who had kindly volunteered their premises.
However, the zinc roof and blazing heat were certainly not a decent combination for a KL born-and-bred, air-conditioned-office employee like Yours Truly.
I later discovered that the abovementioned cheerful participant was named Kajenthiran. He was 10 years old and had 8 living siblings, the youngest of whom was 2 months old. His mother was barely 25 years old.
Did he attend school? I wanted to know. He assured me he did. However, a couple of his brothers didn’t.
“Why?” I probed.
“No letter,” was the simple reply. What that meant, was that his brothers did not have birth certificates and because they didn’t, they were refused admission into school.
They weren’t the only ones. There were a number of adults in their 20s who had neither birth certificates nor identity cards (MYKAD).
What that essentially meant, was while they were born and had lived all their lives in Malaysia - never having ever gone out of the country - they had never made it into the records of the administration.
The government had no clue they existed. More likely, the BN government didn’t even care.
After all, how were a bunch of illiterate rubber tappers of ethnic Indian origin going to ensure BN’s 50-odd years of reign in Malaysia? (and perhaps another 50 to come)
That is why the government wraps itself in copious amounts of red tape to discourage applicants from trying to register after the two-month registration period given for parents to register their children upon birth.
This is not a new issue. The Human Rights Party (founded by Uthayakumar of HINDRAF fame) rails on and on about this.
Some parents are irresponsible. And some were caught up with issues and failed to make the deadline.
Whatever the reason, it is the constitutional right of every child of Malaysia to own his/her place in the nation. To be provided education like everyone else.
But these rightful citizens have been denied this right and will continue to be denied as long as both the ruling coalition and the opposition turn a blind eye to their plight.
Saturday, 5 December 2009
Free & Equal Forum By SABM
In conjunction with the United Nations Year of Reconciliation 2009, the Special Events Working Group of the Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia movement organised the Free & Equal Forum.
A significant topic addressed by the team was urban poverty.
If you missed this event (my condolences to you), you may be pleased to know that we have deigned to allow you a glimpse of our highlights via youtube.
More highlights to follow soon.
A significant topic addressed by the team was urban poverty.
If you missed this event (my condolences to you), you may be pleased to know that we have deigned to allow you a glimpse of our highlights via youtube.
More highlights to follow soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)