Bung invites Rafizi to see 'real poverty' in Kinabatangan

 

PARLIAMENT | Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) has invited Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli to go on the ground and meet his constituents for better implementation of poverty eradication efforts.

Bung (above, right), during Minister’s Question Time today, also dismissed figures cited by Rafizi that Sabah recorded only 6,937 hardcore poor households based on the most recent household income survey conducted in 2022.

“In Sabah, the poorest areas - Tongod and Kinabatangan - are in my parliamentary constituency. The total area is almost equal to the entire state of Pahang,” said Bung, who pointed out that Sabah’s total population also numbers close to four million people.

“So I think YB (Rafizi) has a slightly wrong definition (of hardcore poor).

“I am willing to take you down to these areas for two or three days so you can see the real poverty situation,” said the six-term MP, a former Sabah deputy chief minister.

“There is no road, no electricity, no water. So I don’t know about there being only around 6,000 hardcore poor (households). I feel that’s an insult to poor Sabahans,” he stressed.

Responding to Bung’s supplementary question on methods used to measure poverty, Rafizi (Harapan-Pandan) said the current household income survey method, conducted once every two years, is a practice based on international standards.

He said the poverty income line is also determined based on the amount needed to purchase food items that fulfil a minimum calorie intake, and in Sabah, the figure is set at RM1,218.

Earlier, Rafizi said Sabah represents 38 percent or 6,937 of all 18,445 hardcore poor households in Malaysia, and the national figure represents 0.2 percent of total households as of the 2022 survey.