Look at real situation of lower-income group, govt urged

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KUALA LUMPUR: The government must look at the real situation faced by the lower-income group, especially in the rural areas, instead of taking pride in the statistics on the rising household income issued by certain agencies.

Setiu (Terengganu) Umno Youth head, Mohd Iskandar Jaafar said the fact was that the statistics did not reflect the actual livelihood of the people because many were still ‘living from hand to mouth’.

“Although we have worked very hard, sometimes we feel sad … suddenly we read in the newspaper, we see on television, the average household income of Malaysians have reached RM5,900. Wow,” he said when debating the motion on the presidential policy speech at the 2014 Umno General Assembly at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC), here yesterday.

“Of course when we are heading towards a ‘developed nation’ status by 2020, we must have statistics showing that we are moving forward, but when the people hear about it, they will ask whose income (RM5,900) is it?” he adde d.

Mohd Iskandar pointed out that many of the rubber tappers in the Setiu area, for example, were still earning RM25 per week due to the erratic rubber price besides the weather factor.

“In my area today, the rubber price is very bad, it has even dropped to RM1.60 per kilogramme. Yesterday, I telephoned someone in my hometown to ask for the rubber price, he said it was RM1.70 per kilogramme. One will not even earn RM50 for a week of tapping rubber.

“It means that we cannot be too dependent on statistics to convince the rakyat that their cost of living burden has been relieved,” he said.

The same view was also shared by the Kampar (Perak) Umno division head, Datuk Mohd Radzi Manan who wanted the government to improve the approach adopted in lifting the standard of living of the rural Malays and Bumiputera.

Citing the padi yield of almost RM70 million annually, he said the income and profits earned should be channelled fairly to the farmers concerned.

“Let’s say the farmers earned RM600 for one ton of padi and when this commodity is sold in the market, the price becomes RM3,000.

“Who gets the added value of about RM2,000? It is not us the Bumiputera. I urge everyone to think of this situation,” he said. — Bernama