I once thought Liew Chin Tong was the smart one in DAP. He won the most votes in the DAP CEC election in 2013 surpassing DAP giants (or rather dinosaurs) like Karpal Singh, Lim Kit Sian and even Lim Guan Eng. I thought he could break Lim's dynasty in DAP.
Turns out he's exactly the same like those two Lims.
Liew Chin Tong was so eager to attack the EPU Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan in order to please Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng that he dared to spread lies, unproven facts, and misleading statement.
He wrote:
"THE MALAYSIAN ECONOMY IS VERY GOOD FOR THE TOP 1% OF THE POPULATION, AS GOVERNMENT POLICIES ARE GENERALLY IN FAVOUR OF THE SUPER RICH BUT SQUEEZES THE MIDDLE CLASS AND THOSE BELOW."
This is of course a blatant lie, misleading and factually incorrect statement.
From 2009 to 2014, growth of median income of the bottom 40 (B40) households was the fastest compared to to the middle 40 (M40) and the top 20 (T20) households. B40 median income growth rate was 12.8%, significantly faster than income growth of the T20 (7.7%) and the M40 (9.3%) during the same period. B40 income growth was also faster than the national household (10.1%).
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| Elevating B40 Households Towards a Middle Class Society: EPU |
Overall, income inequality narrowed as indicated by the reduction in Gini coefficient from 0.441 in 2009 to 0.401 in 2014. These data are published by the Department of Statistics Malaysia in the Household Income Survey 2014.
To say that our economy hasn't benefited the those lower income and poor is a blatant lie. There have been so many programs and assistance undertook by the government to help raise B40 household income and it's been proven that their income has increased over the past few years since the current prime minister took over the helm of our country's administration in 2009.
Liew Chin Tong didn't stop there. He further mentioned that the youth unemployment issue raised by Bank Negara Malaysia in its annual report for 2016. He also asked whether this matter raised by Bank Negara is a form of economic sabotage too? This if of course a stupid question.
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| Liew Chin Tong's Blog |
First of all, it's indisputable that youth unemployment in Malaysia is a real structural issue that needs to be addressed by the government as the policymakers. It has been true since decades when youth unemployment rate in Malaysia reached as high as 11.6% in 1993 when Malaysia's economy grew rapidly at average growth rate of 9% every year.
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| Malaysia Youth Unemployment Rate; ILO, World Bank |
Liew Chin Tong failed to mention that BNM specifically wrote that youth unemployment issue is a global problem and youth in Malaysia have not been spared from the global trends. Regionally other countries have been facing the same problem and in fact Singapore has higher youth unemployment rate (10.7%) than Malaysia.
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| Youth Unemployment in Malaysia: BNM |
On the graduate employability, again BNM mentioned that it is a
rising concern for Malaysia and other countries in this region. The trend of
youth with tertiary education which make up a relatively larger share of
unemployed youth does not appear to be unique to Malaysia. BNM also stated that
these trends are likely to be related to the nature of global supply chains and
ensuing patterns of job creation in the emerging economies, vis-à-vis the
advanced economies.
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| Youth Unemployment in Malaysia: BNM |
It's easy to cherrypick and and even easier to highlight the negative part of the report by BNM. It's certainly hard for the opposition leaders to also highlight the fact that youth unemployment and graduate employability are a global trend and not unique to Malaysia and probably even harder for them to mention that Singapore has higher youth unemployment rate than Malaysia.
YB Liew Chin Tong, please do thorough research about our nation's economy before you spread lies to score political points. I thought you were different than the rest in your party but I was dead wrong. I forgot that birds of a same feather, flock together.
Reference:
1. EPU Strategy Paper:
Elevating B40 Households Towards a Middle-Class Society: http://epu.gov.my/sites/default/files/Strategy%20Paper%2002.pdf
2. Bank Negara
Malaysia: Youth Unemployment in Malaysia: Developments and Policy
Considerations: http://www.bnm.gov.my/files/publication/ar/en/2016/cp04_003_box.pdf
3. World Bank, ILO:
Malaysia's Youth Unemployment Rate: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.UEM.1524.ZS?locations=MY
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