Gerakan Secretary General and MP for Simpang Renggam, Liang Teck Meng accused me of “political dishonesty and propaganda” after my colleagues and I exposed him for using outdated data to paint a false picture of the Penang state government.
I showed him the latest data from federal government to demonstrate that 1) workers in Penang are earning better salaries than most states in Malaysia, 2) Penang did well despite lack of federal support, and 3) the federal government is hoarding 98% of the resources allocating only 2% of federal budget to be shared among 13 states in Malaysia.
In order to avoid a lengthy article, I will respond to his statement in two parts. This is part one.
Let’s use Liang’s own measurement: Median household income
Liang tried his hands on statistics again by saying that I should be using “median household income” instead of “median salary”. I stand by my method and I believe any thinking person will be able to understand the differences and my choice of using median individual worker’s salary instead of median household income.
Nevertheless, in order to show him that Penang’s performance is better now than before even in this aspect, I will use Liang’s own measurement.
He claimed that under Pakatan state government, Penang’s median household income growth rate is ranked 4th from the bottom (for growth rate between 2009-2014).
If Liang wants to make such comparison, let us go back a little bit more to Penang’s performance in the last decade of Gerakan rule.
Federal government’s data showed that Gerakan drove Penang to the ground and everyone had to work hard to pick up again
Table 1: Penang’s median household income growth rate and growth ranking from 1997-2014 (Computed from EPU data attached)
*Before 2007, data for Putrajaya was not available. Sabah and Labuan are combined as one entity
**After 2007, data for Putrajaya was added. Sabah and Labuan are combined as one entity
It is clear from the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) data that Penang’s median household income ranked quite low in terms of growth rate in the last 10 years of Gerakan rule.
After experiencing negative growth rate in the late 90s, from 1999-2002, Penang’s median household income growth is ranked 3rd from bottom (12 out of 14), it improved slightly in the next survey period but fell to 2nd from bottom for the period between 2004-2007 (13 out of 14).
When Pakatan took over, Penang’s median household income growth ranking actually improved. The growth ranking for the period of 2007-2009 was highest in 10 years since 1999!
Not only had our ranking improved, under Pakatan, Penang achieved a 17-year record high median household income growth rate.
When Pakatan took over from Gerakan, the median household income growth rate was 9.50% (2004-2007). By 2012, we have achieved a 27.73% growth rate. Even the lower growth rate for the period between 2012-2014 at 16.41% was much higher than anything seen in the final decade of Gerakan rule in Penang.
Just so that Liang later does not accuse me of being unfair, I also did a five-year comparison for 2002-2007, just like he has shown for 2009-2014.
Table 2: Penang’s median household income five-year growth rate for 2002-2007 & 2009-2014 (Computed from the same source as Table 1 above)
*Before 2007, data for Putrajaya was not available. Sabah and Labuan are combined as one entity
**After 2007, data for Putrajaya was added. Sabah and Labuan are combined as one entity
As can be seen from Table 2, while Liang claimed that under DAP, the median household income growth for Penang from 2009-2014 ranked “4th from the bottom”, I would like to remind him that during the Gerakan-UMNO partnership era, Penang was ranked no. 2, but from the bottom.
In terms of growth rate, from 2002-2007 under the Gerakan-UMNO partnership, Penang’s median household income grew 12.83%. But from 2009-2014, under Pakatan, it grew 48.7%.
Let the people judge using the numbers given by Gerakan’s own federal government.
Obviously, the Pakatan Penang state government had to pick up from the bottom where Gerakan had dropped us in the last ten years of their rule.
And as I have mentioned in my earlier statement, Penang excelled despite the lack of federal support. This I attribute solely to the sheer grit of Penangites finally allowed to thrive under a clean Pakatan state government.
I will deal with Liang’s so-called “true total allocation to Penang by the Federal Government” in my next statement.