http://www.theborneopost.com/?p=48426
Published by Borneo Post
Extreme poverty means living in an environment without food security, clean water, sanitation, basic health service, literacy and basic income
THERE are some in the interior born with silver spoons in their mouths but many also enter the world without even wooden ladles.
Despite ongoing efforts to eradicate extreme poverty, the hard reality is that there is no quick fix for this social scourge and a number of households, especially in the rural areas, are still living from hand to mouth as a result.
Two such impoverished families can be found in Kampung Sadir, one of the Bidayuh villages in the interior of Jalan Puncak Borneo, about 58km from Kuching.
Members of the families say they have been living in poverty since childhood. Although most of the 75 households in the kampung are faring better, these two families are surviving in small dilapidated ramshackle huts built of wood and bamboo that appear unfit for human habitation.
“When you are born into a poor family, your immediate generation will also grow in poverty. It’s hard to change,??? said Bujang Nied, head of one of the two hardcore poor families who spoke to thesundaypost.
“I did not ask to be poor nor do I want to be poor. But as I was born poor, I couldn’t afford to go to school.
“Because I have no education and my parents have no land to plant crops, this is what happens to me … continuing to live in extreme poverty.
“The only land I have is here … where I built this house, and it’s very small,??? he added.
Bujang, a 57-year-old grandfather, shares a small wooden and bamboo house on the slope with one of his daughters, who is a housewife, his son-in-law and four grandchildren. He has two sons and two daughters.
“My children studied only up to Primary Three as I could not afford even the basic things for their education. During those days, we survived on the little amount of rice we planted on an acre of land, which also belonged to others, and wild fruits from the jungle like tapioca and yam. Because I did not go to school, it was hard to get a job,??? he recalled.
According to Bujang, his other children come home only occasionally during festivals because his house is too small. There used to be 24-hour electricity supply but because he couldn’t afford to pay his bills, the supply was cut off.
“Now we cook with firewood and use kerosene lamps during the night. Even kerosene is very expensive, so my grandchildren have to shorten their studies at night otherwise we’ll have to start our evening in darkness,??? he said.
“I have no income and am too old to do odd jobs now while my son-in-law living with me is a daily paid labourer, earning barely enough to support his own family.???
Bujang fears his grandchildren will face the same fate as his children who had to quit school because of extreme poverty.
“Now, they can still go to school because it’s free. But it will be tougher if they get to secondary school because there are many more things to pay, including transport and pocket money,??? he said.
Life is no different for 52-year-old grandmother Sunuk Tang.
Her home shares the same wall with Bujang’s and she lives with her daughter, son-in-law and four grandchildren.
“I have been living in poverty even before my husband died. We also have no land and are all (her daughter and grandchildren included) dependent on the pay of my son-in-law, a daily paid construction worker.
“Like our neighbours, our electricity supply was cut off because we could not pay our bills, and now we have to cook with firewood,??? said Sunuk whose husband died five years ago. With no income, not even a ringgit a day, she cannot afford to go to town to change her identity card (IC) to MyKad. She still carries an old IC.
“My son-in-law has to feed many mouths from his meagre salary while I have no means to earn money. I don’t want to be poor but I have no way to change it.
“If we had the money to send our children to school, it might be different today. But we were poor from the beginning,??? she lamented.
Bujang and Sunuk are among eight hardcore poor families whom Kampung Sadir headman Simi Jakab has helped to apply for welfare assistance.
“I submitted their particulars to the authorities and their representatives came to see and interview them. For these two families, I have also requested the authorities to help build their houses,??? Simi said.
They are living in abject poverty but did not bring it upon themselves through laziness, extravagance or over-indulgence. They are poor in purse and natural resources. The grandchildren especially should be given the chance for a better life.
Life, to a vast majority of people, is a disinheritance. While providence feeds some to the fill, it also leaves many even without their daily feed.
Poverty fetters many ambitions and dampens many potential powers of the poor in the interior to rise to greatness. The poor earn the barest wages — enough to live for endless and cheerless toil.
Born and bred into the lap of poverty, the poor normally live in bleak misery. In many cases, only Nature stands by the poor in the countryside and helps them endure poverty better than in large industrial towns. Nature gives them fresh air and sunshine in abundance.
In the interior, they can enjoy the sweet scent of the earth, the freshness of the environment … the green trees and falling leaves that cascade to the ground and into the unpolluted river, and feel the kinship with Nature. But that’s about all the ‘luxury’ (if it can be called that) they can afford.
When children grow up in poverty, they pay a heavy price. Research shows they have more illnesses, perform poorly in school, have more mental health problems, and earn less when they are adults. Helping children out of poverty is therefore morally, socially and economically productive.
Children who grow up poor too often become adults who cannot contribute effectively to economic productivity, put a burden on the public health system or enter the criminal justice system.
Economists estimate child poverty costs the nation billions of ringgit a year.
Generally, the poor in Sarawak are living in marginalised areas with poor resource endowments and extremely weak infrastructure and services, and almost with no linkages to the mainstream economy.
The soaring food prices might have worsened the situation by pushing a large number of people back to poverty which has the tendency to become concentrated in certain areas and among certain social groups despite a rapid declining rate at the national level.
The number in poverty would certainly be much greater had the analysis been done on the basis of a poverty line based on actual consumption pattern of the poor.
In the Ninth Malaysia Plan, the Poverty Line Index (PLI) is RM720 in West Malaysia, RM830 in Sarawak and RM960 in Sabah.
Can a family of seven survive on an income of RM830 per month, given the cost of living in Malaysia today? Where will they live? Can their children go to school? Even an estimated rural household expenditure per month exceeds RM830.
Nowadays, a family of seven in the sub-urban village of Sarawak may need RM300 for marketing, RM200 for school expenses, RM200 for a motorbike, RM100 for medical and clothings and RM100 for lighting, water and phone, for a total of RM1,200. This is for a family without car.
Hence, any family in the sub-urban area with a household budget of below RM1,200 will be facing economic hardship.
Malaysia’s success in the fight against poverty has been commended by the UN, and the government is targeting to eliminate extreme poverty by 2010.
Extreme poverty means living in an environment without food security, clean water, sanitation, basic health service, literacy and basic income. It is the type of poverty that kills.
The extreme or hardcore poverty line index in Malaysia is RM430 in Peninsular Malaysia, RM540 in Sabah and RM520 in Sarawak.
It is believed that more people, both in the rural and urban areas, are defined as poor because of the new methodology to measure poverty.