THE cash aid approach continued by Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s government will ensure electoral support from Malays who form the majority of the low-income community, but will not resolve poverty issues, analysts said.

They noted how the cash handouts in Budget 2022 were a continuation of similar initiatives carried out by previous Perikatan Nasional (PN) and Barisan Nasional (BN) governments.

Ilham Center chief executive director Hisomuddin Bakar said Budget 2022 was timely ahead of the Malacca elections, which begins with candidate nominations on Monday and ending with polling on November 20.

A recent survey by the centre found that respondents were keen for government assistance after finding their incomes severely affected due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“This view is not only shared by the Malays, but also by the Chinese. They want to bounce back during this phase after being affected by poverty.

“They need a new start, and generally there is a higher reliance on government aid among the Malay voters,” Hisomuddin told The Malaysian Insight.

The pollster also highlighted recent figures by the Department of Statistics that showed Malays form more than half of the hardcore poor following the Covid-19 pandemic.

The department’s figures showed that the absolute poverty rate in Malaysia had increased by 2.8% from 5.6% in 2019 and to 8.4% in 2020.

The number of hardcore poor also increased to 1% in 2020 from 0.4% in the previous year.

Additionally, a total of 262,888 heads of households fell within the hardcore poor category as of October 2021.

This number is part of 742,469 heads whose incomes are below the poverty line income, based on figures from the implementation co-ordination unit in the Prime Minister’s Department.

Malay heads recorded the highest rate of hardcore poor at 58.4%, followed by Indians (4.5%), Chinese (2.9%), and other ethnicities (34.3%).

Short-sighted for political gain

Commenting on the figures, Hisomuddin said voters no longer believed promises made by political parties and leaders.

Voters instead assess whether past promises on addressing poverty and the economy have been fulfilled, and cash handouts are, in a way, evidence of that.

In Budget 2022, Ismail’s government renamed the cash aid programme to Bantuan Keluarga Malaysia and included more categories of recipients – single parents, single senior citizens and households with senior citizens – compared to previous programmes under prime ministers Muhyiddin Yassin and Najib Razak.

Meanwhile, analyst Azizuddin Sani said this approach will not eradicate poverty.

“The assistance announced, which encompasses several hundred ringgit to certain groups, is short-term.”

The Universiti Utara Malaysia researcher felt Pakatan Harapan’s Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 had a more realistic plan to eradicate poverty.

The blueprint, which PH introduced while it was in power, had a greater emphasis on equal opportunities for all Malaysians.

The plan reasoned that assisting the poor and marginalised of all races and all categories of vulnerable people was more effective in eradicating poverty across the board.

“For a long-term solution, we have to have a strategy, we have to be effective in bringing the poor out of hardcore poverty and relative poverty.

“For most Malays who are impacted, there are also many factors such as social and education,” Azizuddin said.

Cash assistance, he added, is only workable for the short term.

“We do not want the Malays to continue to depend on welfare alone.”

As such, the government should focus on opening up new economic opportunities as well as creating jobs, in agriculture, for example, instead of relying on foreign direct investment (FDI) and petroleum revenue.

“The government needs to plan which sectors can be developed to create employment opportunities.

“It’s just that Malaysia depends a lot on FDI, which is not enough to support Malaysians to get job opportunities equivalent to their education level.”

Long-term measures that benefit the economy are what is needed, not just for the people but for political parties themselves, “because there is a link between economic prosperity and political prosperity”. – November 8, 2021.