KUALA LUMPUR: A DAP lawmaker has questioned Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s assertion that the average monthly household income was now at RM6,141, as announced in the 11th Malaysia Plan (11MP) tabled last week.
Bukit Mertajam member of parliament (MP) Steven Sim said statistics showed that this figure was highly unrepresentative of the “real situation” in the country. “A year ago, our ‘economy czar’, Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar proudly declared that household income was RM5,900 a month. “Today, the prime minister upped the ante and announced that the average Malaysian household income is RM6,141. But we really must ask, whose household income is RM6,141?” Sim said in a statement yesterday.
Citing the 2013 Malaysia Salaries and Wages Survey Report published in August last year by the Department of Statistics, Sim said the average monthly income of Malaysian workers was RM2,052. The average monthly income of female workers, the report also said, was even lower — still below RM2,000 at RM1,992, while 50% of the workforce earned below RM1,500 a month. The report also revealed that more than one-third of the workforce comprised young Malaysians below the age of 30.
Putrajaya said in September 2013 that 83% of young Malaysians below the age of 30 were earning below RM3,000.
“Thus the question is, whose family earns RM6,141 a month? And if it does, how many people of that household must go to work?” he said.
The 11MP was tabled in the Dewan Rakyat last Thursday. It has since been criticised for being “unrealistic”, for relying on questionable figures, and scrutinised as to whether its policies would really push Malaysian businesses and industries higher up the value chain. “The ‘Big Results’ exhibited by the government is, at best, skewered from the reality and aspirations of normal Malaysians and worse, another dishonest attempt to mislead the people,” said Sim, who is DAP’s national political education director. “And if these are going to influence the fundamental policies of our country for the next five years, then the government is definitely barking up the wrong tree, again.”
Najib had also highlighted the low unemployment rate as another of Malaysia’s achievements, but failed to factor in the quality of employment and compensation, Sim said. “The 11MP acknowledged that our workers’ compensation was about 33.6% in 2013.
This means, for every RM100 earned, RM33.60 goes to workers (including high-paid workers, director’s fee, bonuses and so on) while about RM64 goes to capital or employers. “Compare this with workers’ compensation in other countries in this region: Singapore (41.1%), Korea (43.7%), Taiwan (46.2%) and Japan (51.9%). He also expressed doubts that workers’ compensation to gross domestic product would grow to 40% by 2020, as claimed by Najib.
“This means about a 3% growth annually from 2013. Realistically, is this possible when the trend is showing only half the growth rate on average since 2005?”Also, while unemployment is low, I have pointed out again and again, the high youth unemployment at 10.4%, higher than for example our neighbours, Singapore at 7% or Thailand at 3.4%.
“Those who do have jobs, however, suffer from underemployment, mismatched jobs to their qualification, low wages, and other bad career situations. The government has thus far refused to take these problems seriously.”
The 11MP also expected female labour force participation rate to increase to 59% but Sim said , from 1991 to 2009, the female labour participation rate had stagnated between 46% and 48%. “Then suddenly, in 2014, the government announced that we have surpassed the middle mark by achieving 53.6%. In less than a year, the goal is to hit 55% as committed in the 10th Malaysia Plan. What magic is at work here?” — The Malaysian Insider
This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on May 26, 2015.