1 in 8 Penangites living in poverty, says rep

Bukit Tengah assemblyman Gooi Hsiao Leung (in blue tie) with PKR backbenchers at the state assembly in George Town today.

GEORGE TOWN: At least one out of eight Penangites live in relative poverty, according to research by state assemblyman Gooi Hsiao Leung, who studied two reports on income and poverty levels in Malaysia.

He said about 13% or 53,362 families in Penang live in “relative poverty”, which is defined by the United Nations to mean families without a minimum income enough to maintain an average standard of living in a society.

Gooi said Penang had the second highest level of urban poverty after Kuala Lumpur, caused by a higher cost of living and high inflation levels.

He said he derived his conclusions based on figures from the Statistics Department and the Khazanah Research Institute.

“Penang’s cost of living is at an average of RM4,190 a month for a family, based on 2016 numbers. KRI says over one million households in the country live below the relative poverty line, with an income of RM2,291 a month.

“Penang, after Kuala Lumpur, has the highest urban poor, besides rural poor. The rural poor in states such as Kelantan and Perlis fare better than the urban poor in Penang, due to their lower costs of living,” he said.

“What is even more shocking is that one in four children in Penang’s schools are from families that earned RM2,000 and below in 2018. How does a family, of let’s say four people, live with RM2,000?” he said.

Gooi said the data on schoolchildren was based on a state assembly reply showing 26% of 235,661 pupils live in families that earned RM2,000 and below in 2018.

He said the state government should raise the poverty line index to more realistic levels.The level is a family income of less than RM790 a month, with the state government planning to match the national standard of RM980, he said.

Gooi noted that a UN official had recently stated that the RM980 poverty line was unrealistic, and Penang should do the right thing by being realistic.

“The Penang Institute, the state’s think-tank, has researched the state’s poverty situation. Perhaps they could recommend a figure that is realistic. Penang ideally should declare war on poverty. And start off with children, first, because they need to be off the clutches of being poor,” Gooi said.

“UK and Canadian studies have shown that investing in children from poor families yielded better results than spending on the adult poor. A child born in poverty will grow to be an adult poor if nothing is done.”

Gooi said the battle on poverty was more meaningful than the current political debate and arguments about racial and religious issues. - FMT