'See for yourself': Activist surprised by PM's claim of 'zero hardcore poor' in KL

An activist who is regularly on the ground to help the urban poor with food and other basic necessities has challenged Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's claim in February that abject poverty has been eradicated in Melaka, Negeri Sembilan and the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. 

Mohd Azizan Zainal Abidin said the government's claim that there were no more abjectly poor people in Kuala Lumpur would be disproved if the leaders came and saw for themselves how crowds of people gathered for help every time his group distributed basic food items.

Azizan, the founder of Food For Gelandangan, added that the number of people asking for help this year had increased compared to 2023.

He said the response to the relief distribution had been so overwhelming as of late that his group had had to initiate a filtering process to ensure that aid only reaches those who truly need it, as there are not enough items for everyone.

Azizan said the plight of the urban poor did not reflect what was being presented to Parliament as the success of poverty alleviation programmes.

"I would like to believe it, but I don't know," said Azizan, who was visibly perturbed by the claim of no "hardcore poor" in Kuala Lumpur.

"The minister says poverty has been eradicated almost 100%, but please tell me what exactly has been eradicated," he said when met by MalaysiaNow shortly after his group's weekly distribution of relief items to the homeless in Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur.

"The food that we just distributed, what about that? And then the minister said, 'We found work for them'. Wow, how simple!"

He added that the ministers responsible for tackling the problem of poverty should go down to the ground and see the situation for themselves. 

He referred to Federal Territories Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa and Women, Family and Community Development Minister Nancy Shukri.

"Don't play around with statements because we are the ones on the ground," Azizan added.

Putrajaya previously said that it was making the eradication of abject poverty one of its main goals.

Anwar's statement of no more hardcore poor in Kuala Lumpur is believed to be the first time that such a claim has been made.

This is despite the fact that the number of hardcore poor has been decreasing year-on-year.

In November last year, Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said the hardcore poverty rate had dropped to 0.2%, affecting 18,445 households, compared to 1% in 2020 when the country was facing the Covid-19 pandemic.

For 2022, the government at the time said that the number of households classified as hardcore poor had fallen to 129,395, compared to 260,000 in 2021 when the impact of Covid-19 peaked.

Azizan said the problem of homelessness had yet to be solved due to weak enforcement, adding that it had only exacerbated the issue of urban poverty.

He called on the relevant authorities to scrutinise the homeless community in order to identify the elderly, foreign immigrants and drug addicts.

"In the end, we are left with those who are healthy, and these are the people who need to be given training and skills. Only then can we declare zero homeless people and 100% poverty eradication.

"If it's claimed as 100%, why are the urban poor in the current situation?" asked Azizan, who comes to his service centre every Friday.

He said the plight of the urban poor was worse than that of the poor in rural areas.

"The urban poor receive RM700 aid from Baitulmal for each family. But the rent for a room for a one-child family without partitions for kitchen etc is RM500.

"So what is left is RM200," Azizan said.