The Malaysian demographics profile as of the July 2008 census is estimated of a nation with a population of 25,274,133 citizens made up from 50.4% Malay, 23.7% Chinese, 11% Indigenous, 7.1% Indian and 7.8% of others. The median age of Malaysians is 24.6 years with an average life expectancy of 73.03 years.
Now, let us look at the poverty rate in Malaysia. In December 2008, UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) Malaysia estimated that this proportion has fallen to 5 percent. Not bad, eh? Now, how does one go about making this conclusion? UNDP Malaysia utilises what the Malaysian government determines as the poverty line income (PLI). Those above it are categorised as “not poor” and those under it are categorised as “hardcore poor”. So Simple!
So, what is the government-classified poverty line income? Under the 9th Malaysian Plan (9MP), this comes to RM698 for those residing in rural areas and RM687 in urban areas. It means that any person earning RM698.01 will be graded as “not hardcore poor”, regardless of where he is living. Additionally, a Malaysian earning between RM1,400 and RM1,600 (which is double this PLI) is considered “ok-lah so-so”, and if this particular person earns between RM2,100 and RM2,300 (which is triple this PLI), he will be considered “well-to-do”. If he earns anything over RM2,800 per month (which is quadruple the PLI), he is “rich”, and a monthly income of RM3,500 (five time the PLI) is “bloody rich”. RM5,000? Unthinkable!
OK! Let us now reclassify this PLI from RM698 to some arbitrary fantasy figure. If we change it to RM1,000 per month (wow!), the poverty rate jumps from 5.1% to 8.6% and if the PLI is RM2,000 per month (wow-wow!), the rate is 38.0%. RM3,000 a month will be 57.6%. So who are these people that is surviving below the PLI? The answer is the majority of Bumiputeras living in rural areas (the Malaysian Department of Statistics estimated “somewhere between 70% and 80% of the total count”).
Now, allow me to jump to the three stooges who are contesting the UMNO Youth Chief position. Blah…blah…blah… but collectively Larry, Moe and Curly agreed that the NEP was the “only way to go” but nobody bothered to inform them that the NEP (or its mutations) has been going on since 1971, which is 38 years ago when those surviving below the PLI accounted for over half of the Malaysian population.
Let’s be hypothetical here now for a wee bit. Let us imagine that the PLI is at present established at RM2,000 per month. This means that the poverty rate is 38.0%. Let us also assume that 75% are Bumiputeras (not only Malays). Work the brain (or use the calculator) and one will obtain approximately 7.2 million Bumiputeras earning under RM2,000 per month. If we use RM3,000 as the benchmark, that figure escalates to approximately 10.9 million Bumiputras. Use RM5,000 and we obtain about 14.6 million (out of the 15.5 million Bumiputeras in Malaysia). That leaves 900 odd thousand that is in fact earning over RM5,000 per month.
Is the NEP working then? Hell, YES! 900 odd thousand is not a figure to scoff at! 38 long years of effort is not something to belittle either! Look at it from another point of view – of the 25 odd million people in Malaysia, the BN government has taken 38 years of toil (and special privileges) to generate 900 odd thousand Bumiputeras earning RM5,000 (or more) per month in income. This is Bumiputera Supremacy! So, if you are one of those 14.6 million poor Bumiputera that earn less than RM5,000 a month, blame yourself, not the system.
Coming back to Larry, Moe and Curly, these chaps are attempting to outdo one another, trying to garner as much votes from the UMNO membership as possible. Did I mention that UMNO has a self confessed membership of more than a million Malays? Oops! How many Bumiputeras are earning RM5,000 or more a month again? Doesn’t seem right, does it? Does this indicate that there are UMNO members that are earning less than RM5,000 per month? Additionally, if we were to employ the 50.4% Malay against 11% Indigenous ratio, the 900 odd thousand will consist of roughly 703,000 Malays and 197,000 Natives or 5.5% of the total Malay population and 7.1% of the total Indigenous population respectively. Well, one thing is definite – the NEP works for 5.5% of Malays or 2.8% of the total Malaysian population.
Now tell me something, is Malaysia alienating Malaysians?
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