Tun M contradicted! Govt stats show rich-poor gap evenly spaced out among all ethnic groups

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad could have left a lasting positive legacy if during his 22 months as the 7^th Prime Minister of Malaysia, he had worked towards undoing his past missteps when he led the country for 22 years as the 4^th Prime Minister, in particular, healing soured race relations.

Unfortunately, Dr Mahathir remains bent on conveniently using the Malaysian Chinese as the traditional bogeymen in whipping up discord, jealousies by repeatedly stereotyping this community as  “wealthy,”  or more recently, as “extremely rich” during his interview with Asia Times.

This is his trademark to divert attention over Pakatan Harapan’s failure to revive the economy when in office, or Pakatan Harapan Plus’ current imbroglio over who next will be their Prime Minister.

The two-time premier could have salvaged some credibility for himself if he admitted that there are just as many working-class Malaysian Chinese struggling to eke an honest living, just as there are other working class Malaysians.

He only had to refer to DM Analytics founder and chief economist Dr Muhammed Abdul Khalid who conveyed that “the perception that all Chinese in Malaysia are wealthy is wrong as data from government agencies indicate that a majority are wage-earners in this community (The Malaysian Insight, 20 Jan 2018)”.

Data from the Statistics Department Household Income Survey 2016 show that 70% of the Chinese were working class, compared with 72% Bumiputera and 83% Indians (The Malaysian Insight, 20 Jan 2018). With only a 2% differential between the Chinese and Bumiputeras, this figure is too minute to constitute Dr Mahathir’s sweeping generalisation that the Malaysian-Chinese-are-extremely-rich.

Dr Mahathir only has to refer to the same Statistics Department survey which shows that intra-ethnic income gap is the highest among the Chinese compared with the Bumiputeras and the Indians (The Edge Malaysia Weekly, 6 ~12 Nov 2017).

Bumiputeras in the T20 category earned RM5.30 for every RM1 Bumiputeras in the B40 category earned in 2014 and 2016. However, the same cannot be said for the Chinese community. In 2014, people in the T20 category earned RM5.80 for every RM1 those in the B40 category earned. In 2016, that amount increased to RM6 for the T20 group. In short, 8 out of 10 Malaysian Chinese are working class and are not wealthy tycoons!

The Langkawi MP could have salvaged his reputation if he offered solutions to the boatloads of Rohingya economic migrants trying to land illegally on the shores of his constituency, or, as a trained doctor, cast aside politics and work with the Perikatan Nasional government to curtail the Covid-19 pandemic since viruses do not recognise racial or economic borders.

Nevertheless, Malaysia’s longest-serving premier can still redeem himself and leave behind a positive legacy by sharing with fellow Malaysians, the know-hows and work ethics of his children as to how they became multimillion and multibillionaire sensations.

Ryan Ho Kwok Xheng
MCA Youth Spokesperson

-MCA online-