Children's growth stunted as economy grows

 

Stunting in Malaysia is a national emergency hiding in plain sight.

When children’s growth is permanently impaired by malnutrition, it isn’t just their bodies that suffer; their cognitive development, learning capacity, and future livelihoods are damaged for life.

In 2000, 20 percent of our children under five years of age were “stunted”, and this has increased to 24 percent.

In fact, developing countries that enjoy a similar economic growth rate as Malaysia experience a stunted growth rate of less than 10 percent.

A country that prides itself on development cannot normalise children growing up smaller, weaker, and more vulnerable simply because the system failed them before they could even speak.

What makes this crisis even more disturbing is that it is entirely preventable.

Stunted growth reflects lack of will

Stunting is not caused by rare diseases or genetic conditions. It is driven by poverty, food insecurity, poor maternal nutrition, inadequate healthcare access, and structural inequality.

In other words, this is not a medical failure. It is a governance failure. It reflects policy choices, budget priorities, and political neglect.

Malaysia does not lack resources. It lacks political will.

We spend billions on mega-projects, bailouts, and prestige infrastructure, yet allow children to grow up undernourished in both rural and urban communities.

When development is measured in skyscrapers but not in healthy childhoods, something is fundamentally broken in the definition of progress.

Stunting also exposes the brutal intersection of poverty and invisibility. The families most affected are the ones least heard: low-income households, refugees, migrant communities, undocumented populations, Indigenous groups, and the urban poor.

Their children carry the cost of inequality in their bodies, while policymakers debate statistics in air-conditioned rooms. This is neglect by design.

A national security issue

If Malaysia is serious about being a developed nation, stunting must be treated as a national security issue, not a welfare footnote.

It affects education outcomes, workforce productivity, healthcare costs, and long-term economic resilience. A stunted generation becomes a structurally weakened nation.

Stunting worsening in Malaysia should shame every institution responsible for health, education, welfare, and economic planning.

Children should not be paying the price for policy failure. This demands urgent, coordinated action from nutrition programmes and maternal healthcare to income security and food access. 

What we don’t need is another report, task force, or press conference. - Mkini

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CHARLES SANTIAGO is former Klang MP.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.