Sultan Nazrin warns against widening income gap

KUALA LUMPUR: The culture of "petty corruption" will develop if issues of a widening income gap and uneven distribution of wealth are not addressed.
Sultan of Perak Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah said the wealth distribution rate in Malaysia is at a worrying state as the target of RM48,000 per-capita income is needed for Malaysia to become a developed nation.
Based on the New Economic Model report, which showed that 80% of Malaysian households earned less than RM5,000 a month, while 78.6% of Employees Provident Fund subscribers earned less than RM3,000 a month, Sultan Nazrin said many people were forced to take on second jobs to cope with the current situation.
"This is the reality in the country. The number of those in this category will only increase if effective formulas focusing on housing, food, health and transportation are not introduced," he said at the 47th Anniversary of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) celebration here today.
"What are the options for civil servants and professionals if their salaries are not enough to pay for their daily expenses?"
Sultan Nazrin said the country cannot deny the reality that Malaysia is facing today, and it is a huge challenge for the country to tackle the issue.
"It is a serious social disease, needing intensive treatment from society's doctors and surgeons, and a formula for a cure from social pharmacies which can dispense comprehensive and holistic social policies," he said.
He added that corruption was committed by two types of people – one are desperate due to the hardships in life and the other are those consumed by greed.
"Offenders in the second category tend to be slick and sophisticated, adept at washing their hands off of any wrongdoing, difficult to convict and connected to the powerful," he said.
To fight corruption, the authorities need to be strict and impose non-selective action, the Sultan reiterated.