Philip Alston says the job will remain 'painfully incomplete' unless the new government takes a different approach to eradicating poverty. FMTNews NationalPovertyLine
Former UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights Philip Alston said last year that the national poverty line did not portray the country’s cost of living.
“However, the new government’s response to throws that commitment into doubt, stating that ‘it stands by [the] absolute poverty rate’,” he said in a statement, referring to comments made during the UN general assembly this year. Alston visited Malaysia from Aug 13 to 23 last year. During his trip, he travelled to Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Sarawak, Sabah and Kelantan, and met state and federal government officials, international agencies, civil society, academics and those affected by poverty in urban and rural areas.He said then that the official poverty line – the lowest in the world – did not portray the cost of living in the country and excluded vulnerable populations in its official figures.
“We stand by our absolute poverty rate, which was recorded at 0.4% of total households in 2016, or 24,700 households,” he said.
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