A Barisan Nasional backbencher today risked the ire of his colleagues by criticising a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department over an outdated reply to the House this morning.

abdul ghapur salleh An irritated Abdul Ghapur Salleh (BN-Kalabakan) took SK Devamany to task for failing to provide an accurate picture of the national and state monthly household income, during the 90-minute question session.

Devamany had replied Lim Guan Eng (DAP-Bagan), saying that the national mean monthly household income had increased to RM3,668 last year while the median monthly household income stood at RM2,542.

Abdul Ghapur, who is from Sabah, took a swipe at the Devamany’s answer as being “inaccurate”, as he noted that his state has recorded a 24 percent poverty rate and that the figure does not reflect the household income.

“The deputy minister shouldn’t just ask his officials for the answer. The answer is outdated. I think Cameron Highlands (Devamany’s constituency) is a historian,” Abdul Ghapur argued in a supplementary question.

devamany 261107 Interjecting, Devamany smilingly disputed the ‘historian’ label, saying: “Now, I’m an economist.”

Abdul Ghapur then urged the government to conduct a detailed and up-to-date survey.

Devamany then acknowledged there may have been an oversight in the survey and promised to bring raise the matter for discussion with the government.

lim guan eng In an earlier supplementary question, Lim questioned the government’s methodology of using the ‘mean monthly household income’ as the yardstick.

“This is not right at all. We should only use the international benchmark, which is the median monthly household income, to reflect the real situation. Where could you find RM3,000 plus for the average household income?” he asked.

Devamany defended the data as “authoritative” because it was obtained afer interviewing 38,083 households in different locations nationwide.

He also said the survey methodology is recognised internationally and that the data collected has been used by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.