TERENGGANU’S parents should not be blamed for their children’s stunted growth, Amanah lawmaker Raja Kamarul Bahrin Shah chided Terengganu Menteri Besar Ahmad Razif Abdul Rahman.

The Kuala Terengganu MP said Razif’s statement faulting the parents was uncalled for, and said the state government played a role in educating parents.

“If the parents’ attitude is why this (problem) happens, it should be corrected by government officers such as those from the Ministry of Health, and information from village chiefs and local councils.

“Terengganu has a pretty big state budget of RM2.2 billion for a population of only 1.1 million.  

“Why isn’t the money utilised to explain healthcare for children? The state government has failed to do so,” Raja Kamarul said in a press conference at Parliament today.

According to Unicef’s Children Without report, 26% of children below the age of five are stunted in Terengganu, which is the second highest state after Kelantan.

Raja Kamarul blamed the state government for being insensitive to the people’s eating problems.

Ahmad Razif responded, calling Raja Kamarul’s allegations untrue, and said that the stunting of Terengganu children was purportedly due to conditions like cerebral palsy and congenital anomalies.

Raja Kamarul also blamed the Terengganu government for wasting state funds that could have been channelled to feeding the people.

He said that the purchases of the RM3 million Amphibian bus, the RM320 million duty-free centre, and the RM350 million Knowledge Park were a waste of money.

“The (projects) were abandoned, examples of money being misspent,” he said.  

The Terengganu Amanah chief also said constituencies under Barisan Nasional ministers also were not well taken care of.

Raja Kamarul said fishermen from Kampong Teluk Ketapang took home earnings below RM460 per month and, in Kemaman, below RM500 a month.

These areas are under Razif and Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister Shabery Cheek, respectively.

“Terengganu’s budget of over RM2.2 million for 1.1 million people is sufficient to ensure the people are healthy and happy, compared to neighbouring states like Kelantan and Pahang, which despite having RM700 million budgets, have many residents.

“The mismanagement and weak administration of the Terengganu state government is the cause of this situation,” he said.

Yesterday, Education Minister Mahdzir Khalid disputed the findings of the report, which claimed students were suffering deprivation and malnutrition in Malaysia.

He said government schemes, like the supplementary food programme (known by its Malay acronym, RMT), had eradicated such problems.

The Unicef report found that 34% of children below the age of five in Kelantan faced stunted growth, followed by Terengganu and Pahang (26%) and Putrajaya, Perak, Sabah & Labuan (24%).

23% of children in Sarawak faced stunted growth, followed by Perlis (21%), Penang (20%), Negri Sembilan (19%), Kedah (18%), Malacca (14%), Johor (12%), and the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur (11%).

The report, which compared countries with similar per capita GDP as Malaysia, said in terms of stunting, Malaysian children were worse than those in Ghana. – March 14, 2018.