Concrete policies please, Mr PM, before more people face hunger – Charles Santiago

A SINGLE mum came to my office yesterday, absolutely having given up on life. She has no money for food for herself and her four children. 

This case is one among the many. However shocking this may seem, the fact is we may very well be facing a hunger crisis in the country.

In his innate wisdom, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob responded to this alarming situation by announcing RM100 in cash aid to every family.

With the price increase, the single mum won’t be able to feed her family with this aid. Not even for a week. And neither can any other B40 family of four.

We are facing a triple whammy – job and income losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic, consequences of the December floods and now, exorbitant food prices.

A study by Unicef found that many families in Kuala Lumpur could not afford to eat the same amount of food as they did before their loss of income. Some were reported to eat only one meal a day while others recalled eating more rice, fewer vegetables and even less meat.

Ismail Sabri responded, yet again, by removing the price cap for chicken, chicken eggs and palm cooking oil. We are taking away subsidies and in doing so the dignity of the poor as well.

While the poor have no more savings, the government has no holistic solution, as opposed to Singapore that has unveiled a S$1.5 billion (RM4.7 billion) economic package to combat inflation.

The prime minister should disburse RM250 to poor families, kickstart a lunch programme in schools and introduce other poverty-targeting policies that would help cushion the B40 community.

In 2019, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations recorded that 900,000 Malaysians were hungry.

In the same year, the World Bank identified that three out of 10 Malaysians feel they do not have enough money to buy food.

Some 52% of households living in low-cost flats in Kuala Lumpur do not have enough money for food. And so, Ismail Sabri needs to act fast before more Malaysians go hungry everyday. – The Vibes, June 24, 2022

Charles Santiago is Klang MP