PRIME Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has done relatively well after one year in office but needs to step up the social safety net for the poor who have been severely hit by inflation, Charles Santiago said.

The Klang MP said Ismail also needs to reform the agriculture sector to ensure food security.

“While I congratulate the prime minister for his first year in power, I would also like to stress to him the need to put together a set of social protection efforts, with reforms in the production and management of the food sector, in order to ensure Keluarga Malaysia will be able to manage the cost of living crisis,” Santiago said in a statement.

He said due to the high cost of living, those in the B40 have slid further down the poverty line to B60.

This means that this group will struggle to put food, especially nutritious ones, leading to stunted growth among the population, he said.

“Big corporations are minting profits by the billions, while the ‘new poor’ (B60) are struggling to put food on the table. So, what’s the next best option for them? 

“It’s resorting to cheap but unhealthy food supplies such as instant noodles. Children are fed carbohydrates as a way of keeping their stomachs full.

“Unhealthy foods lead to malnutrition among children and they become early candidates for diabetes and other diseases. This has been well-documented by Unicef.”

Santiago said the government can consider direct cash transfers to single mothers with children aged below 18 years to ensure that poor families, especially children, have access to nutritious food. 

On average, the poor spend 25% of their income on food while the rich spend 12.5% of their income on the same items.

To increase food production in the country, he suggested that the government transform wakaf lands for agriculture and cut out monopolies and middlemen.

There is also a need to increase the number of manpower in the country and this can be done by employing refugees, prison labour and documenting existing undocumented workers, Santiago said.

Ismail was appointed the ninth prime minister on August 20 last year after Muhyiddin Yassin lost majority support.

Last year, Ismail signed a memorandum of understanding on transformation and political stability with the opposition.

He also pushed through reforms, such as the anti-party hopping bill and the anti-sexual harassment bill.

Ismail’s government has also provided various consumption subsidies, including for water and electricity as well as cooking oil.

While it has scrapped bottled cooking oil subsidies, the ceiling price for chicken and eggs, along with fuel subsidies, have remained. – August 22, 2022.