GEORGE TOWN: The Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) has called for the setting up of a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to investigate allegations of extreme poverty in Malaysia.
CAP‘s acting president Mohideen Abdul Kader said the commission needs to establish an accurate picture of poverty in Malaysia and to identify institutional weaknesses in developing effective development and poverty alleviation policies.
He added it should also recommend urgent reforms of the government delivery system to ensure that it is poverty-focused, is supported by a strong local governance framework and consistent with the government’s vision of shared prosperity.
CAP’s call came in the wake of the recent statement by United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights Professor Philip Alston, that Malaysia had been fudging its poverty measurement, and that its poverty rate was much higher than official reports.
According to Alston, instead of an official poverty rate of 0.4 per cent, Malaysia’s real poverty rate was at an estimated 15 per cent, which meant that the government policies in the recent past had not been effective in delivering development outcomes.
Mohideen applauded the finding as it supported an issue that CAP had raised many times - that the government had lost its line-of-sight on poor and vulnerable populations and consequently had implemented development projects that not only failed to reach the poor, but pushed the vulnerables further into poverty.
He added that mega reclamation projects such as Forest City in Johor and the Penang South Reclamation scheme were examples of development projects that negatively impacted vulnerable coastal communities that risk pushing them deeper into poverty.
“At the heart of this damning finding by the UN is the failure of government institutions to develop honest, transparent and effective metrics to address issues of poverty alleviation and inclusive development in government policy making.
“Unless we fix this problem, we will never attain the vision of shared prosperity as outlined by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad,” he said.
Mohideen added there were a wide array of poverty measurement tools for making the poor legible to government policy making.
He said innovative methodologies had been developed for making the voices of the poor heard, such as the World Bank’s Social Observatory or the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) by Oxford University.
“All these tools are ready to be utilised for effective public policy making, provided they are utilised competently by serious and committed institutions.
“Yet, the government remains blind to these tools, while it continues to perpetuate its failed developmental initiatives, creating even more poverty, unemployment and misery,” he added.
Mohideen also drew reference to the Prime Minister's economic adviser, Dr Muhammed Abdul Khalid, who said official data showed states like Johor, Melaka, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya had 0 per cent poverty.
“One only needs to look at the increasing number of homeless children and the long lines at the soup kitchens in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu or Johor Baru to know that the official poverty rate cannot be that low.
“Unless of course, our officials are blind to see what is happening on the ground and are deaf to the plight of the poor.
“What we need is to recognise that our institutions have failed and they are in need of urgent reforms.
“But before we can do that, just like a person who is alcoholic, we first need to acknowledge our problem,” he noted, stressing that the setting up of a RCI was warranted, given the urgency of the issue as it impacted upon the way government budgets were allocated and policies formulated, with serious consequences to the poor on the ground.
Following Alston’s revelation, Dr Mahathir had said the government would study the claim and review the methodology to ascertain poverty levels, if necessary.
Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali meanwhile said the official poverty figure of 0.4 per cent was derived from internationally-accepted standards based on the second edition (2011) of the Canberra Group Handbook on household income statistics published by the United Nations.