KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 19 — Poverty is colour-blind but so are Malaysians who gain wealth through “special treatment” and sweetheart deals with the Barisan Nasional (BN) government, DAP lawmaker Zairil Khir Johari said today.

The federal opposition MP was hitting back at Communication and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek, whom Zairil claimed had purportedly labelled him “biased and racist” for pointing out Penang Malays were still poor today due to years of neglect when the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition governed the state.

“Not all Chinese are rich, Mr Minister,” the Bukit Bendera MP said in a statement.

Citing research published by economist Dr Muhammed Abdul Khalid in his book, The Colour of Inequality: Ethnicity, Class, Income and Wealth in Malaysia, Zairil stressed that poverty is “a Malaysian problem.”

He noted that Dr Muhammed’s book showed two-thirds of Malaysian workers earn less than RM3,000 a month, and about 90 per cent of all Malaysians have nearly zero savings, a point he said was supported by figures from the Department of Statistic’s Wages and Salaries Survey 2013.

Zairil said the government department’s numbers showed the median wage for a Bumiputera worker is at RM1,600 a month while an ethnic Chinese worker gets just RM400 extra and an ethnic Indian is lower, at RM1,500 monthly.

“This abysmal reality proves that Malaysians across all ethnic groups are struggling to make ends meet,” Zairil said, and added, “But cronies across all races are rich”.

“These selected Malaysians are special because they have been deemed fit to receive special treatment in the form of directly negotiated tenders, sweetheart contracts, lucrative concessions and mega-projects from the Barisan Nasional government,” the Penang lawmaker said.

He rang the alarm on the growing income disparity domestically; highlighting that Malaysia had the biggest gap of all countries in the Southeast Asian region between its rich and poor, which he blamed on government policies that allow for a “rentier economy” favouring capitalists close to the ruling bloc.

He warned that the situation will worsen unless proactive policies are put in place to deal with corruption and cronyism.

Earlier this month, a joint paper by the University of Malaya and Khazanah Research Institute revealed that income inequality in Malaysia is worsening despite the national household income survey showing the opposite.

The paper titled “Is inequality in Malaysia really going down?” observed that the value of residential property purchased by high-end buyers has grown more rapidly than the property purchased by low-end buyers over the years.

Putrajaya has launched various transformation programmes as part of its bid to make Malaysia a high-income and developed nation by 2020.

According to the government, the country’s gross national income (GNI) per capita has increased from US$7,059 (RM22,860) in 2009 to US$10,060 (RM32,600) last year, leaving the country with six years to hit the US$15,000 (RM48,577) target in 2020.