PUTRAJAYA: The government should consider suggestions to redefine national poverty levels and income brackets to address the problem effectively, said Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (pix).
The chairman of the Parliamentary Caucus on Reform and Governance also said Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has agreed new benchmarks were needed to determine an accurate national poverty rate.
“We have a consensus to ask the government to put the poverty level at a higher rate because Mahathir said he is willing to consider views on how to measure the poverty level,“ Anwar said at a seminar on national poverty at Parliament yesterday.
On Monday, the Khazanah Research Institute (KRI) said in a statement the government should create new income categories to effectively reduce income inequalities and curb poverty.
KRI called for the introduction of new categories such as B20 for the bottom 20% poor, as opposed to the present categories of B40, middle 40 (M40) and top 20 (T20), which are often used as a guide to dispense welfare aid.
Anwar said lumping all low-income earners in the B40 category is ineffective and not in line with the country’s economic development.
“With the increasing cost of living, the B40 find that their income is less than their expenses. Therefore, their debt increases,” said Anwar.
However, economist Prof Tan Sri Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali took a different stand, saying he was against any move by the government to redefine poverty or introduce new income categories.
The Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia professor said the government needed to come up with new measures to look into and address the quality of life among Malaysians.
“What we need to focus on is the living wage that is localised. Meaning a decent wage for a person to have a comfortable life in a particular area.
“People seem to get carried away by talk of B20 and B40. I don’t think it should be the way to draw up policies as it will be one line across the board for the whole nation. Policies need to be more focused.”
Noor Azlan said claims that the country was doing poorly and therefore needed to address poverty was not accurate, noting that the nation has progressed considerably over the years, and that this needed to be acknowledged.
