We live in a globalised world that is full of inequalities. Unfortunately, these inequalities are not always visible to most of us.
Apr 242009
Mar 212009
A blog reader has mentioned the following in the comments section, which I thought was worth highlighting. When you consider the immense resources that Sarawak and Sabah have at their disposal, you have to wonder why their poverty rates are higher than the other states with around the same household income:
The core issue in Sarawak is governance and distribution within Sarawak. Don’t fall for the federal-state ploy, although there are of course serious issues there.
This can be seen, e.g., when one compares the average household income in Sarawak with that in other states. Below are the numbers for 2004 as published in the 9th Malaysia Plan, and sorted by average household income from highest to lowest:
According to the latest household income survey, the following are the percentages of families in the various monthly household income brackets.
| Household monthly | Percentage | |
| income range | of families | |
| < RM 1000 | 8.6 | |
| RM 1001 – 2000 | 29.4 | |
| RM 2001 – 3000 | 19.8 | |
| RM 3001 – 4000 | 12.9 | |
| RM 4001 – 5000 | 8.6 | |
| RM 5001 – 10,000 | 15.8 | |
| > RM 10,000 | 4.9 | |
| 100.0 |
