Anti-poverty schemes at both State, Federal levels have failed: Yong

KOTA KINABALU: Admission by Chief Minister that the "hard core Poor still high due to e-Kasih system" shows that the government's eradication programmes at both State and Federal levels have failed.

Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) President Datuk Yong Teck Lee claimed the leaders were not focused on poverty eradication Programmes and the deserving target groups.

The "e-Kasih Programme" was supposed to eradicate poverty but now the Chief Minister was blaming the system for the hard core Poor figures (of 4,657), he said in a statement here.

"This confusion casts the BN administration in a bad light. One wonders what has happened to the Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia with a fund of RM236 million and its Azam Niaga, Azam Khidmat, Azam Tani and Azam Kerja.

There is also the KWAMP (Kummpulan Wang Amanah Pelajar Miskin) and so many confusing programmes that civil servants have to grabble with," he said.

Earlier this Year, Yong said Federal Minister Datuk Shahrizat Jalil announced that there were 4,255 e-Kasih cases in Sabah out of the national total of 54,180 cases.

"This means that the e-Kasih cases have gone up by 400 cases this year.

"At the end of last year the Chief Minister had declared Tawau as "zero poverty" which nobody believed because the Poverty line is defined as a family income at RM540 per month and hard core poor at RM270," he said.

"All you have to do is to drive around Tawau to witness the visible Poverty.

"Natives who are being evicted from their customary lands and traditional villages in forest reserves are being driven to poverty. Last December, the World Bank had declared Sabah as the poorest state in Malaysia.

"Prices of basic goods, transport and rents have con- tinued to rise while incomes remain stagnant. The 2012 national budget contains nothing to spur economic activity. Instead, the Prime Minister raise the EPF coutribution by 1pc to 24pc that neither employee nor empIoyer can use,” he said.

He added that Poverty cannot be eradicated in airconditioned offices using computers.

"To attack the Poverty problems involves the deploy ment of the entire government machinery, quaiity edu- cation to break the Poverty cycle, empowerment of Young people through skills training, increased productivity in The rural area by ownership of land and government departments to facilitate instead of obstructing economic growth," he said.

Daily Express

Friday, Oktober 21, 2011

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