PETALING JAYA: Lawyer and human rights activist Azhar “Art” Harun says the government is “lazy and populist” in trying to use the 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) to gloss over the struggles that the people are facing day-to-day.
Taking to Facebook, Art said that the problem with the increasing cost of living that is affecting those in the Bottom-40 percentile in terms of income, is that the government thinks just handing out BR1M would cover their needs.
“According to our prime minister, BR1M is successful in alleviating the difficulties of the B40s and it increases happiness.
“In actual fact, BR1M is just a wasteful way of providing money to make more than six million people happy for a month or two. It is employed by a government that is lazy and populist to hold the B40s on a tight leash,” Art said.
He also called out the government for not facing up to the reality of health issues affecting Malaysians, especially young children, as a result of the difficulties the people are facing.
Art referred to the preliminary finding of a survey jointly conducted by the health ministry and Unicef Malaysia last year.
According to the study, called National Health and Morbidity Survey 2016, 28% of children aged 12-23 months in Putrajaya suffer from stunting, a condition in which a child shows less height growth than his or her peers.
The Edge had reported that one of the chief causes for the stunting may be that they cannot afford enough nutritious food.
“The review found the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity due to financial constraints to be 24.9%,” the report said.
Calling it a sad state of affairs, Art said that the government touting the increase in gross domestic product (GDP) and an improving economy has no meaning following this report.
“All those mega numbers do not reflect the real situation on the ground. A country’s GDP may grow tremendously but GDP does not measure the unmeasurables.
“If that’s (28%) the number in Putrajaya, I wonder what the number is in the rural areas,” he said referring to the joint ministry-Unicef survey result.
‘Health emergency’
He also cited another report from June, as mentioned by The Edge, which stated that nationwide, 20.7% of children under the age of five are stunted.
“This was reported in Malaysia’s first voluntary national review of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, presented to the UN General Assembly in New York in June,” The Edge reported.
He added that another survey had recently reported that 25% of Malaysians starve themselves “because they can’t afford to eat properly”.
The health ministry-Unicef survey number on toddlers with stunted growth also puts the country dangerously close to the “health emergency” levels as specified by the World Health Organisation.
According to The Edge, in the World Health Organization’s ranking system, a condition is considered a “health emergency” when it is prevalent in 30% of the population.
Taking to Facebook, Art said that the problem with the increasing cost of living that is affecting those in the Bottom-40 percentile in terms of income, is that the government thinks just handing out BR1M would cover their needs.
“According to our prime minister, BR1M is successful in alleviating the difficulties of the B40s and it increases happiness.
“In actual fact, BR1M is just a wasteful way of providing money to make more than six million people happy for a month or two. It is employed by a government that is lazy and populist to hold the B40s on a tight leash,” Art said.
He also called out the government for not facing up to the reality of health issues affecting Malaysians, especially young children, as a result of the difficulties the people are facing.
Art referred to the preliminary finding of a survey jointly conducted by the health ministry and Unicef Malaysia last year.
According to the study, called National Health and Morbidity Survey 2016, 28% of children aged 12-23 months in Putrajaya suffer from stunting, a condition in which a child shows less height growth than his or her peers.
The Edge had reported that one of the chief causes for the stunting may be that they cannot afford enough nutritious food.
“The review found the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity due to financial constraints to be 24.9%,” the report said.
Calling it a sad state of affairs, Art said that the government touting the increase in gross domestic product (GDP) and an improving economy has no meaning following this report.
“All those mega numbers do not reflect the real situation on the ground. A country’s GDP may grow tremendously but GDP does not measure the unmeasurables.
“If that’s (28%) the number in Putrajaya, I wonder what the number is in the rural areas,” he said referring to the joint ministry-Unicef survey result.
‘Health emergency’
He also cited another report from June, as mentioned by The Edge, which stated that nationwide, 20.7% of children under the age of five are stunted.
“This was reported in Malaysia’s first voluntary national review of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, presented to the UN General Assembly in New York in June,” The Edge reported.
He added that another survey had recently reported that 25% of Malaysians starve themselves “because they can’t afford to eat properly”.
The health ministry-Unicef survey number on toddlers with stunted growth also puts the country dangerously close to the “health emergency” levels as specified by the World Health Organisation.
According to The Edge, in the World Health Organization’s ranking system, a condition is considered a “health emergency” when it is prevalent in 30% of the population.
-FMT
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