PM: Unacceptable for leaders to live in luxury, many in poverty

It is unacceptable that hundreds of thousands of the rakyat are living in poverty while the country’s leaders are living in luxury on wealth that does not belong to them, said Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

This is especially as this country has achieved independence for more than six decades and yet, as of July 2022, there are about 136,000 households in extreme poverty.

“It’s embarrassing if we allow these people to live in poverty while the leaders live in luxury and continue to accept rewards that are not their right.

“It is haram for us political leaders or public servants to practise corruption or wastage in a situation where hundreds of thousands of our people are living in difficulty,” Anwar said in his prime ministerial mandate on developing Malaysia Madani in an event in Putrajaya today.

The Pakatan Harapan chairperson said it is the government’s responsibility to strive in order to free the people from poverty.

“I use the word ‘free’ but it doesn’t mean offering help because they will continue to depend on the government - the dependency syndrome. 

“Our approach should be to free them from this plight so that they live independently in Malaysia.”

Although 20 percent of the middle-income group (M40) households have slipped into the bottom 40 percent (B40) category during the Covid-19 pandemic, Anwar said it should be an excuse to leave the dire situation as it is, without any bold intervention.d differently.

“Apart from (looking at the) income, the measure of poverty should be multidimensional, a multidimensional index. This is more fair.

“This has been initiated before, I want it to be completed,” Anwar added.

‘Up to RM6 billion can be saved if…’

On another matter, Anwar said the government could save up to RM6 billion if the weaknesses made by political leaders and civil servants that have been mentioned repeatedly by the auditor-general were corrected.

A small and medium enterprise

Those mistakes identified by the auditor-general, he said, were detailed in the Auditor-General’s Report 2021 and the cabinet studied the latest report at its weekly meeting yesterday.

“These problems have been highlighted repeatedly by the auditor-general in previous reports and they showed that the biggest problem with the government administration is the way weaknesses are exploited to enrich a select few.

“From studying and reviewing big projects, as well as the performance of our enforcement bodies, if all this is done carefully and responsibly, I am confident billions more can be saved,” Anwar stressed.

Progress of SMEs is more meaningful

Anwar also said that the government will be putting more focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to ensure that contracts, previously given to big conglomerates, are granted to this group instead.

“They need to be given the opportunity for their status to be elevated, so that they are not exploited in the issue of procurements or big government projects.

“SMEs form 97.2 percent of all the companies in Malaysia and they pay wages to almost 70 percent of the workers (nationwide).

“The development and progress of SMEs are more meaningful than supporting selected conglomerate groups,” Anwar said, adding that there should be a change in the old approach when it comes to competition among the top companies. - Mkini