AUGUST 28 — The day I woke up and found out that the average bachelor’s degree holder here in Malaysia only earns about RM2,600 per month as a fresh graduate, I was stunned. Today, I woke up to the news that Malaysia has been setting the poverty line at RM980 for almost five decades, it blew me away.
Pardon me for being oblivious for the longest time, but are you telling me that a fresh graduate is “twice as fortunate” as someone in poverty? Especially with the rising cost of living, ever-increasing rent and property prices, and the disruption of jobs?
Philip Alston put it very nicely. It’s not the previous regime, nor the current government’s fault for overlooking this issue for the longest time. It is political suicide to claim that they have introduced more poverty while the country is under their purview.
Consider why the poverty line was there to begin with. The Malaysian New Economic Policy was set in place to combat the ever-present poverty issue at that time and to diffuse racial tensions after the May 13 riots. But almost fifty years have passed since, and we can’t use old measurements to determine current issues.
I have seen governmental statistics being thrown around left and right. If the poverty line is severely undervalued, I start to question whether other nationwide indicators have been manipulated or severely outdated as well.
- Unemployment rate
Looking at the figures, the national unemployment rate has been hovering about 3.3-3.4 per cent for the past few years. I have peers who are still struggling to get employment, and by mingling with members in the industry, I am shocked that the figure was placed this low.
A simple search on the Department of Statistics states the following:
“Employed refers to all persons who worked at least one hour during the reference week for pay, profit or family gain either as an employer, employee, own-account worker or unpaid family worker.”
How I interpret this is that, if you are a Grab driver, and you only took one ride from KLIA to Petaling Jaya during rush hour (which comes up to an hour) for the entire week, you are legally classified as employed. That includes part-time workers in shopping malls, cashiers and those pesky online merchants marketing their products on Instagram as well.
What is even shocking to me is that the calculation is made with the domestic group of people aged 15-64. Included in the study, are children who are still studying in high school as well! Does it mean that children who are helping their parents in “Pasar Malams” are considered employed as well?
Even our prime minister, Tun Dr Mahatir has said that it is normal for youths in the country to be unemployed, acknowledging that unemployment rates amongst youths are at 10.9 per cent. So you’re telling me that 9 out of 10 high schoolers in Malaysia are somehow working instead of focusing on their studies?
Speaking of which:
2. Malaysia PISA ranking.
For those who don’t know, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international test that determines how ‘smart’ the students are in a particular country based on reading skills, and comprehension in mathematics and science.
In 2012, Malaysia ranked 52nd out of 62 countries who took part in the assessment. As a reference, Singapore landed 2nd place behind Hong Kong in 2012, and got first place in 2015.
Where were we in 2015?
We weren’t even listed amongst the list of countries who participated in the assessment. And yet, the Education Ministry back then were tooting their horn, claiming that Malaysian students have gotten smarter.
It turns out, the government back then were cherry-picking the data, and was ‘disqualified’ in a way. The test requires 85 per cent of all eligible public schools to take part in the assessments, and we have only submitted 51 per cent.
Worst of all, 31.4 per cent of the students participating in the assessments were from ‘SekolahBerasrama’, the crème de la crème of the lot.
I came from a Chinese vernacular background both in primary and secondary school. It always seemed strange to me that the periodic test taken every quarter are significantly harder than the national exams.
I have never heard of a country, where the standard tests are so significantly harder, that the national exams are considered a cakewalk. What sort of country practices these sort of things?
3. National Property Information Centre (NAPIC)
As a property writer, I have met the folks from the Valuation and Property Services Department (JPPH), and I fully understand their pains and troubles trying to secure accurate and substantial data from the market. But what truly shocked me was the inaccuracy of the data submitted to the government.
I have seen people purchasing properties with a listed price of RM420,000 with only an RM390,000 loan with zero down-payment. The property in questions is part of the Home Ownership Campaign, which warrants a 10 per cent discount on the property. The form submitted to NAPIC states that the property has an actual price of RM505,000!
That is a measurement inaccuracy of about 23 per cent! With such inaccurate data submission, how will it translate to the overall Malaysian House Price Index (MHPI), land valuation and so on?
Such practices exist with good reason. It helps boost the valuation of the entire district, which raises the property prices of the surrounding properties. Overvaluing the property also allows for ‘cashback schemes’ which give way to property rebates and zero-downpayment solutions.
I would like to put forward a disclaimer and state that these are merely my personal assumptions, and I would be willing to be proven otherwise. In fact, it would be better for the entire nation if I were to be proven wrong.
However, I cannot forget what Tun Dr Mahathir said during his speech in an entrepreneurial event: “Do not sacrifice integrity, honesty in pursuit of success.”
How far is Malaysia willing to go to cover up our mistakes through opaque practices, when it would be better to spend time and resources in actually fixing them? I pray that new measures will be set in place so that we can have a better understanding of where we stand.
Once that is set in place, we can finally put forward policies to fix issues that truly matter and not contradict ourselves in the process, and move forward as a nation.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
