Concrete policies please, Mr PM, before more people face hunger

 

From Charles Santiago

A single mother came to my office on Thursday as she had no money for food for herself and her four children. She said she had given up on life.

This case is just one of many.

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However shocking this may seem, the fact is we may very well be facing a hunger crisis in the country.

In his innate wisdom, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob responded to this alarming situation by announcing RM100 in cash to every family.

With the price increase, the single mum won’t be able to feed her family with this money. Not even for a week. And neither can any other B40 family of four.

We are facing a triple whammy: job and income losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic, consequences of the December floods, and now, the exorbitant food prices.

A study by Unicef found that many families in Kuala Lumpur could not afford to eat the same amount of food as they did before their loss of income. Some were reported to be having only one meal a day while others said they were eating more rice, fewer vegetables, and even less meat.

Ismail responded, yet again, by removing price caps for chicken, eggs and cooking oil. We are taking away subsidies and, in doing so, the dignity of the poor as well.

While the poor have no more savings, the government has no holistic solution as opposed to Singapore which has unveiled a S$1.5 billion economic package to combat inflation.

The prime minister should, therefore, disburse RM250 to poor families, kickstart a lunch programme in schools and introduce other poverty-targeting policies that would help cushion the impact on the B40 community from the removal of subsidies.

In 2019, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations recorded that 900,000 Malaysians were hungry.

In the same year, the World Bank identified that three out of 10 Malaysians feel they do not have enough money to buy food.

About 52% of households living in low-cost flats in Kuala Lumpur, do not have enough money for food.

And so, Ismail needs to act fast before more Malaysians go hungry every day. - FMT

Charles Santiago is the MP for Klang.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.