Poverty in Malaysia is a controversial economic issue. The definition of poverty and the poverty line for Malaysians has been disputed, and government policies to address poverty such as the
Malaysian New Economic Policy have been met with political protest.
Malaysia's total population is 31 million as of 2015, of which 0.6% live below the national poverty line. Malaysia has grown rapidly in terms of economic development. An indicator is that in 2014, 65.6% of the population aged 15 years and above were employed.
History
After Malaysian independence, significant chunks of the Malaysian economy were controlled by British colonial firms. Second economically to these monopolies were small-scale retail enterprises run by the
Malaysian Chinese
Malaysian Chinese (; Malay: ''Orang Cina Malaysia''), alternatively Chinese Malaysians, are Malaysian citizens of Han Chinese descent. They form the second largest ethnic group after the Malay majority constituting 22.4% of the Malaysian po ...
and small-scale moneylending businesses run by a few
Malaysian Indian
Malaysian Indians or Indian Malaysians are Malaysian citizens of Indian or South Asian ancestry. Today, they form the third-largest group in Malaysia after the Malays and the Chinese. Most are descendants of those who migrated from India durin ...
s.
After the
13 May Incident in 1969, where racial rioting broke out in the federal capital of
Kuala Lumpur
, anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera''
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia
, pushpin_map_caption =
, coordinates =
, su ...
, the
Malaysian New Economic Policy (NEP) was initiated. Its purpose was to narrow the disparities in wealth between the
Malay
Malay may refer to:
Languages
* Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore
** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century
** Indonesi ...
and non-Malay communities in the country through aggressive
affirmative action and state intervention in the economy.
It has been suggested that although the NEP was initially successful in achieving its goal of reducing the economic gap between different communities in the country, its politicisation in the 1990s and 2000s (decade) hampered its implementation; during this period, intraethnic economic inequity amongst the Malays reportedly increased. Anecdotal evidence has been used to suggest that rural Malay communities have not been significantly uplifted economically by the NEP.
As the country modernised, new forms of poverty appeared; one such problem was that of urban poverty. Economic development has been named as the cause of poverty amongst "single female headed households, the rural elderly, unskilled workers and migrant workers" by a local economist.
The
United Nations Development Programme
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...
has praised Malaysia for its reportedly successful poverty reduction programmes. Officially:
However, in 2019, UN disputed the poverty figures released by Malaysia. Malaysia stated that its poverty figures was down to 0.4% in 2016 when compared to 49% in 1970. This is because Malaysia defined poverty as household income per month less than RM 980. However, UN officials argued that Malaysia has set the poverty line too low and household income more than RM 980 but less than RM 2000 are in fact under the poverty category also. The UN also stated that realistic poverty rate in Malaysia is from 16% to 20%. However, Malaysia stand firm of its claim while pointing that the UN assertions are incorrect.
See also
*
Income disparity in Malaysia
*
Poverty by country
countries of the world, Countries by percentage of population living in poverty, as recorded by World bank, World Bank and other sources.
Methodology
"Poverty" is defined as an economic condition by the lack of both money and basic necessit ...
Notes and references
{{Poverty