Congratulations PM for completing one year at the top job but much more needs to be done, urgently.
Saturday marked the first anniversary of Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s premiership.
In the various interviews to commemorate the first year, he mentioned the need to do more for the people, especially the poor.
This view is very welcomed, but he missed out on talking about the cost of living crisis that’s hitting the B60, a downgrade from the B40, due to inflation and price increases.
This means that now 60 per cent of Malaysian households would earn below RM4850.
The steep increase in price levels impacts different groups of people differently.
It also exposes the vulnerabilities in Malaysia’s food security and hits the poor significantly as they spend about 25 per cent of their monthly income on food as opposed to the rich, who spend about 12.6 per cent.
Big corporations are minting profits by the billions, whereas the “new poor” (B60) are struggling to put food on the table.
So, what’s the next best option for them?
It’s resorting to cheap but unhealthy food supplies such as instant noodles. Children are fed carbohydrates as a way of keeping their stomachs full.
And unhealthy food leads to malnutrition among children, and they become early candidates for diabetes and other diseases. This has been well-documented by UNICEF.
Ismail Sabri’s government has to, therefore, ensure domestic food security because now, we depend on foreign imports for local use.
To do this, the “wakaf” land, for example, could be used for agricultural production. And while productivity through greater use of technology should be encouraged, it is important to eliminate middleman and monopolies that control production and costs.
In short, the government must make agriculture ‘sexy’ again, especially to the young.
I understand this is a bit more complicated as SMEs in the food production sectors face difficulty producing at previous price levels due to global supply chain shortages, lack of workers and a weaker currency resulting in business closure or reduced production for the market.
To mitigate the short labour supply, the government should consider the employment of refugees, prison labour and documenting existing undocumented workers.
However, we have an urgent matter to address: the poor eating patterns among the B60. To help assist these families, the government could consider cash transfers such as Bingkas, an i-Selangor government programme to address the food burden of low-income earners.
Here an amount of RM300 is transferred to single mothers with children below 18 years of age to ensure that poor families, especially children, have access to nutritious food.
The government could also consider a targeted breakfast scheme to overcome stunted growth and malnourishment among schoolchildren.
While I congratulate the Prime Minister for his first year in power, I would also like to stress to him the need to put together a set of social protection efforts, with reforms in the production and management of the food sector, in order to ensure Keluarga Malaysia will be able to manage the cost of living crisis.