YOURSAY ‘It does not matter what figures they report because whether or not the country is doing well, the people on the ground will know.'

PM's 1.7pct poverty claim blatant fraud, says PKR veep

Confused: Statistics are merely numbers which can be easily manipulated to the benefit of those people who are reporting them. We will know the level of poverty in the country by simply asking the people on the streets about their cost and standard of living.

Doesn't the government know that it does not matter what figures they report because whether or not the country is doing well, the people on the ground will know.

The people are the ones that will know how difficult it is to make a living and how much they are suffering. Such statistics only matters to the foreign investors but not the local people here.

Gotcha: If the Malaysian poverty rate is 1.7 percent, then why is the government giving out the Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M).

Our leaders must talk and say things truthfully. By saying the poverty level stands at 1.7 percent, probably that means they are saying Malaysia is the "best" in the world.

Anonymous #76965586: It was reported that on average the rakyat earns 50 percent more today than four years ago.

The inflation rate as reported only increased by approximately 12 percent as compared to four years ago. Hence, the rakyat's buying power has increased by 38 percent compared to four years ago.

Great! The rakyat should feel happy about it as they should have more money to spend. If the majority of you feel that you are not one of them, then there must be something wrong with the report.

Could the fact be the other way round - income increased by 12 percent, inflation up by 50 percent?

Oscar Kilo: It's a matter of statistics and definitions. Just reduce the poverty income level to RM200 per month and you can instantly wipe out "poverty".

Mushiro: If BR1M was given to about 20 percent of our population to households earning less than RM3,000 a month, how can the poverty rate be 1.7 percent? PKR vice-president N Surendran's figure looks more accurate.

Heavywater: Najib lies again, as if nobody would check. Just go down to the ground and really see poverty everywhere. Furthermore, has anyone noticed that our bankruptcy rate has increased on a monthly basis?

Is Najib, the magician plucking information out of thin air? Maybe that is his version of transformation? But how stupid does one need to be to say things that can easily be contradicted.

Orang Jauh: Surendran, how dare you call my 1PM a fraud. He was referring only to the cronies and their extended families, not the entire population.

Actually, Malaysia-wide, the poverty rate is even lower than the cronies' extended families. I think it is only 1.25 percent.

RR: In Malaysia, a household of five members needs about RM3,000 per month to have two decent meals per day after paying for rental, school transport, clothing, etc.

On this basis, I think 35 percent of the people in Malaysia are poor as most of them do not have two decent meals per day. Look at the long queue begging for BR1M of RM500 per year.

If Japan has 15 percent poor; not abject poverty, then Malaysia's poor is easily 35 percent.

IQ900 : There are 4.3 million households earning less than RM3,000 a month receiving BR1M. Let say there are four persons in a household, there will be a total of 17.2 million people belonging to the poor.

On top of that, they are 2.5 million single persons who earn less than RM2,000 a month receiving RM250. Then there will be a total of 19.7 million poor people in Malaysia.

How on earth, Najib got his figures of 1.7 percent? 1.7 percent of 28 million population is only 476,000 poor persons.

Slumdog : The poverty rate in Australia in 2010 was 12.8 percent, and this is the figure for an advanced first world nation.

Najib's claim that the poverty level in Malaysia is at 1.7 percent is fanciful and a downright lie. There goes another breach of the election integrity pledge that Najib signed.

Anonymous_4030: Hello, Surendran. I am trying hard not to call you stupid, but it looks like you are not just stupid, but " bodoh sombong " as the Malays say.

The figure 1.7 percent refers to extreme poverty or "kemiskinan tegar". So of course, there are more Malaysians who are "miskin".

Your comparison with Japan is totally out of place. Please stop misleading the public. Malaysiakini readers, it is your choice whether or not to be fooled by this wannabe politician.

Wira: Anonymous_4030, I don't want to call you a liar but you are certainly a spinner. The Star reported this: "(PM Najib) said the proof (of progress) was in the Gross National Income (GNI) - from US$257 (RM802.5) in 1957 to US$9,970 (about RM31,000) last year, an increase of almost 4,000 percent in over five decades while poverty had dropped from 60 percent in the early days of Independence to just 1.7 percent in 2012."

Now tell us where did he mention extreme poverty as spinned by you.

A bowl of noodle going for 20 sen in 1957 is now sold at RM3.50. That is a 1,750 percent price increase. A 5-sen bus fare in 1957 is now priced at RM1, that is a 2,000 percent price increase.

A kati of meat back then was 40 sen, now it's RM16, a 4,000 percent increase. A RM15,000 house in 1957 was priced at RM1,500,000 in 2012. That's a 10,000 percent increase.

What great eradication of poverty is the PM talking about when the per capita GNI (gross national income) from independence to 2012 is only 4,000 percent.

The only cheaper things we can buy today that were not available then are technology stuff like smartphones and high-definition TV, and the reason is that those are still among the cheapest in the world because Umno cronies have not found a convincing way yet to introduce an Approved Permit (AP) for these imports.

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