KPRU was commenting on a recent statement by Prime Minister Najib Razak, who said the rising number of Malaysians going overseas showed that allegations by the opposition that the country was going bankrupt were not true.
Najib also said he had seen many Malaysians during his recent visit to Saudi Arabia, and had been told by friends of many Malaysians travelling to London.
KPRU, however, said Najib’s observations were not based on fact but on limited personal experience. Even if they were factual, it added, travelling abroad was easier today than in the past.
“Today, we have advanced technology, perfect aviation facilities, and most importantly, much more affordable air tickets because of affordable airlines such as AirAsia.
“Travelling time is also shortened where we only need around two hours to reach nearby countries such as Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam,” KPRU said in a statement.
It said related travel expenditure, including accommodation, was also affordable, especially in Asean countries.
“This is a factor that entices Malaysians to go shopping abroad and in addition to that, travel agencies often offer attractive and affordable travel package promotions which also indirectly encourage more Malaysians to travel.”
KPRU said one of the factors hurting Malaysians’ pockets was the goods and services tax (GST) which it claimed had caused the prices of goods and services to increase and the cost of living to go up.
“Referring to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) that measures inflation, the latest data provided by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) shows that the CPI from January to December last year recorded an increase of 3.7%, compared with the same period in the previous year.
“What contributed to the increase of CPI in that period were transportation (+13.2%), food & non-alcoholic beverages (+4.0%), health (+2.5%), restaurants & hotels (+2.5%), housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuels (+2.2%) and furnishing, household equipment & routine household maintenance (+2.1%).
“For food & non-alcoholic beverages, among the subgroups of food at home which showed significant increases during this period were oils & fats (+13.3%), fish & seafood (+6.7%), vegetables (+4.0%), fruits (+3.4%) and meat (+3.1%).”
KPRU also noted that the gap between the poor and the rich was increasing as indicated by the statistics of trust funds in the country between 2016 and 2017.
KPRU chart: Unit Holding of Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB) 2016, Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020 (ASW 2020) 2017, Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM) 2017
“Based on our analysis, it is found that among the various types of Amanah Saham, about 70% to 90% of the units subscribed are held by unit holding sizes of 50,000 and above where the number of unit holders are only 10 to 20%.
“Although the holding size of 5,000 and below has far more unit holders, the units subscribed is less than 5%. This means that the wealth is controlled by a small group of people. This only makes the rich richer.”
KPRU also noted that the World Bank’s gross national income (GNI) per capita records from 2014 to 2017 had been decreasing every year.
In 2014, it was 11,010; in 2015, it was 10,450; in 2016, it was 9,860; and in 2017, it was 9,660.
“A high-income nation is defined by the World Bank as a nation that has a GNI per capita of US$12,236 and above using the Atlas method.
“Based on the GNI per capita, how can we achieve the target for Malaysia to become a high-income nation by 2020? Is the Economic Transformation Programme that seeks to bring Malaysia towards a high-income status a success if the GNI per capita is dropping?”