GEORGE TOWN, Nov 4 — About 633,840 people or one out of three in Penang are in the lower income group (B40), Bukit Tengah assemblyman Gooi Hsiao Leung said today.
He said this is based on the national figure that there are 2.78 million families in the B40 group out of which, 5.7 per cent or 158,460 families are in Penang.
“I agree with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who recently said that we must not be easily distracted by bigots but we should focus on important things such as the welfare of the poor,” he said during a press conference outside the state legislative assembly hall.
Gooi said there were extremists among the Opposition who often made false allegations that the Malays are under threat and that it was haram for non-Muslims to be in power.
He said the focus should be on the issue of poverty in the country and the poverty line income (PLI) that is being used.
“If according to the PLI used by government, there are less than 0.2 per cent of people under the poverty line,” he said.
He said the PLI fixed by the federal government was RM980 while the state was at RM790 per month were ridiculous.
“A recent report by Khazanah Research Institute (KRI) found that if we measure relative poverty income at below 60 per cent of the nation’s median income, about 22.2 per cent households in the country will be classified as poor or that one in five Malaysians are poor,” he said.
He said another KRI report also found one million households in the country, or 36.2 per cent of the B40 families are living under the relative poverty line of below RM2,291 per month.
“Based on these figures, it means in Penang, 53,362 families or 13 per cent of the people in Penang or one out of eight in Penang are living in poverty,” he said.
He said the estimated household expenditure in Penang, based on 2016 statistics, is RM4,190 per month so how can a family with RM2,000 income survive?” he asked.
Gooi said it is time for the state to wage war against poverty and review its PLI to reflect the local conditions and expenditure in Penang.
“The state government needs to come up with specific policies to target the eradication of child poverty,” he said.
He said based on a reply he obtained in 2018 at the legislative assembly, 26 per cent out of 235,661 children in Penang are from households with less than RM2,000 income.
He said this meant one out of four children are living in poverty and that poor children will grow up to be poor adults.
“We need to stop this cycle by eradicating child poverty,” he said.
He said if child poverty can be addressed, then the issue of poverty in the state will be resolved too.
