Minister Questions Absence of Singapore & Brunei in Msia’s Lowest Poverty Rate Stats

In case you haven’t heard, Malaysia apparently has the lowest poverty rate in Southeast Asia, based on a recent blog post by our very own Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak.

He wrote that our poverty rate was only at 3.8 per cent compared to Vietnam and Indonesia (11.3 per cent), Thailand (12.6 per cent), Laos (22 per cent), the Philippines (25.2 per cent) and Myanmar (32.7 per cent).

Source: google plus

“If compared to other countries with a high poverty line like Syria (82.5 per cent), Madagascar (75.3 per cent) and Zimbabwe (72.3 per cent), I feel grateful over Malaysia’s success in ensuring the well-being of the people,” he added.

Malaysia’s per capita gross domestic product (GDP) was USD$27,200 (approx. RM111,000), which is way better than other countries such as Thailand (USD$16,800; approx. RM68,577), Indonesia (USD$11,700; approx. RM47,759), the Philippines (USD$7,700; approx. RM31,431), Vietnam (USD$6,400; approx. RM26,124), Myanmar (USD$6,000; approx. RM24,492), and Laos (USD$5,700; approx. RM23,267). Looks like our economy is good right?

Source: the star

However, in case you didn’t notice, it looks like he has missed out a few other countries. Yup, where exactly are our neighbours, Singapore and Brunei? 

Another minister, Democratic Action Party (DAP) MP Tony Pua gave his own opinion about what Salleh has said and pointed out a few glaring inaccuracies about his statement. First of all, he compared Malaysia’s poverty rate with neighbouring countries but he conspicuously missed out Singapore and Brunei, both countries which have negligible poverty rates. 

Source: connected to india

Pua also criticised Salleh, saying, “Have we really gone so low today that we now need to compare ourselves with the poorest countries in the world to make ourselves feel good for the new year? What happened to the times when we prided ourselves to be among the Asian Tigers, being quoted in the same breath as South Korea, Taiwan and sometimes even Singapore and Hong Kong?”

Considering that Syria and Zimbabwe are war-torn countries and Madagascar had a political crisis, we shouldn’t even be comparing ourselves to them but there should be some explanation as to why we have fallen so far behind South Korea and Taiwan. Pua also slammed Salleh for quoting the CIA World Factbook statistics when there are more reliable sources such as the World Bank, or our very own Statistics Department.

Source: business insider

Pua added, “If Salleh were to believe the World Factbook statistics, Malaysia should already immediately declare itself a “developed nation” ahead of the Vision 2020 target. Does the minister actually believe that the average monthly income of Malaysians today is in excess of RM9,000?” How many of us earn that much?

He continues to refute Salleh’s claims and said that the World Bank only reports Malaysia’s GDP per capita as US$9,500 instead of the initial amount that was reported.

Source: the rocket

“In 1966, 10 years after achieving independence, Malaysia’s GDP per capita was triple that of South Korea’s. The latter overtook us in 1990, and today, based on World Bank figures, the country has a GDP per capita of US$27,500 (2016), which is more than triple that of ours,” he explained.

What do you think of our country’s current state of economy based on these past figures?

Also read: M’sian Fresh Grads Will Find it Even Harder to Get Jobs in 2018, Here’s What Experts Say