M’sia close to winning war on poverty
ERADICATING poverty and hunger are a fundamental agenda of any responsible government. There are a set of measures, both economic and humanitarian, intended to permanently lift people out of poverty.
Despite the fact that there has never been a problem of chronic hunger in Malaysia, the programme of poverty eradication is actively on the move in our blessed multi-racial country.
I implore the acclaimed programme that it will be continuously carried even if there is a change of government.
Do you know that there are nearly 1/2 of the world’s population of 7.44 billion — more than 3.5 billion people — live on less than US$2.50 a day.
More than 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty — less than US$1.25 a day. One billion children worldwide are living in poverty.
According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty, 805 million people worldwide do not have enough food to eat. Lest we forget, food banks are especially important in providing food for people that can’t afford it themselves. The prospect is indeed very scary? If the above bad news is not enough, more than 750 million people lack adequate access to clean drinking water. Diarrhoea caused by inadequate drinking water, sanitation, and hand hygiene kills an estimated 842,000 people every year globally, or approximately 2,300 people per day.
According to the U N report, in 2011, 165 million children under the age 5 were stunted (reduced rate of growth and development) due to chronic malnutrition.
Preventable diseases like diarrhoea and pneumonia take the lives of 2 million children a year who are too poor to afford proper treatment.
As of 2013, 21.8 million children under 1 year of age worldwide had not received the three recommended doses of vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis. 1/4 of all humans live without electricity — approximately 1.6 billion people. 80% of the world population lives on less than $10 a day.
The World Food Programme says, “The poor are hungry and their hunger traps them in poverty.” Hunger is the number one cause of death in the world, killing more than HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.
In Malaysia, poverty is a controversial economic and political issue. Both the government and the opposition lawmakers are fond of using this issue as their weapon, albeit some obvious aspect of hypocrisy, to win the voters’ heart.
The definition of poverty and the poverty line has been disputed for years and causes much political uproar, including political protests and debates.
Record has it that Malaysia has grown rapidly in economic development, with 65.6 percent of the population aged 15 years and above employed and working in 2014.
With that many people working, each household is expected to make a sufficient income. (Ref : borgenproject.org May 2017 )
Malaysia has also shown remarkable economic progress over the past several decades, with poverty falling from 49.3 percent in 1970 to 23 percent in 1989 and 1.7 percent in 2012. One of the key facets of the New Economic Policy that we adopted was creating a “Pro-Poor” policy.
According to the World Bank, “the NEP contributed to poverty reduction and helped provide opportunities to poor households.”
It must be noted that our Poverty Line Income differs from the standard USD1.00 per day (purchasing power parity) poverty line. When converting to international standards, it results that we are facing a disputable higher poverty rate.
According to the World Health Organization, consumption of less than 1,960 calories a day is a mark of food poverty.
A great indicator of successful eradication of hunger in our country lies in the fact that our daily per capita intake of calories has been consistently above the standard mark and many nutrition programs have been incorporated into the rural development plans and have proved successful. The average was 2,969 in 1999.
A survey conducted in 2014 by the Department of Statistics Malaysia on a sample size of 81,634 households, shares the preliminary data that only one percent of these households were living below the poverty line index, meaning only 300,000 people of 33.3 million are living in poverty in Malaysia.
We are a blessed nation that has overcome poverty through an inclusive approach to growth and equity. Needless to say, there are still vulnerable groups, like single female-headed households and the elderly.
Also, many Orang Asli and indigenous people in Sabah and Sarawak have yet to come out from the vicious cycle of poverty predicament.
To move forward, the government should carry out a new consensus to find out the poverty line that is more balanced in line with international standards, as was suggested by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Despite having one of the largest comfortable middle classes in any Muslim country, we are on the right track to completely eliminate poverty and strengthen our economy.
Our government must continuously endeavour to solve the poverty quandary by using its very own four-pronged method of thinking as discussed below.
Educate and lift the level of education among the poor children in school, and teach them business practices that can help them gain a higher income job and possibly run a company.
Strengthen social safety nets, and provide government funded empowerment
Ensure income is redistributed to uplift those in poverty.
Create policies that promote economic development.
With economic and political will power, that embrace integrity as the way forwards, let us pray that we shall be guided by the almighty to significantly reduce poverty in Malaysia if not to eradicated poverty once and for all. We shall overcome, InsyaAllah!