Food security, cost of living top of Malaysians' priorities

SHAH ALAM - Malaysias cite food security top of the list for the Cost of Living Committee to tackle while some highlighted the need to redefine the concept and meaning of “cost of living”.

Luqman Nurhakim Kasim said food security should be given focus due to the community’s need to ensure there was a monitoring system to determine whether specific types of food were available and accessible to the people.

He said there were indicators that could be used to identify the food security of the country, namely by the supply, availability, affordability, ease of market access and a nutritious food supply.

He, who is a Human Resource Officer from Johor Bharu, reiterated it was not only vital for people knew where to get good and nutritious supply of food

“Food security is very important because there are indicators that can be used to identify food security for a country, namely the availability of food supply, affordability, ease of market access, and nutritious food supply,” he said, who is also a Human Resource Officer in Johor Bharu.

He also expressed gratitude for the unity government to appoint the cost of living committee because this is the first step for Malaysia to face the global recession in the next year.

Echoing Luqman’s view, Nur Akhirah Sarkawi, 23, from Sabah also agreed food security should be top of the list.

The 23-year old aerospace engineer said the government needs to increase and improve the fishing and agriculture industry in Sabah.

“Sabah is not only about tourism, we have other things that the unity government should focus on,” she told Sinar Daily.

She said that if the unity government can export Sabah's fishing industry to Peninsular Malaysia, it will boost the economies of both Malaysians and Sabahans.

“Fishing and agriculture are part of food security that we need to focus on now,” she said.

She added the committee needs to look for foreign investors to open factories so that Sabahan workers do not have to travel to Klang Valley just so that they can work.

Meanwhile, 46-year old Lim Phaik Ting said the wages in Malaysia were not equivalent with the price of necessities that were constantly on the rise.

She, who is a housewife from Penang, said the living costs in Penang were “so expensive but rakyat just gets minimum wages”.

“The cost of living committee should look at this issue, maybe by having this committee, it will increase the minimum wages,'' she added.

Jesmet Jasal, 36, stated the need for the committee to look into the business sectors in Malaysia.

“The government needs to be holistic enough to understand what is the current way of business and what can be done post-Covid-19”, he said.

He also said the Cost of Living Committee needed to understand the real definition of “cost of living” for everyone at all levels of society.

According to Numbeo, the world’s largest cost of living database that is crowd-sourced globally, the average cost of living in Malaysia for a family of four is estimated to cost about RM7,259.60 without rent monthly while a single person is estimated to cost RM2,031.40 without rent monthly.

It also stated that the cost of living in Malaysia, on an average, is lower than the United States by 51.8 per cent, while rent in Malaysia on an average was 79.3 per cent lower than the United States.

Last week, the unity government had set up a committee to monitor measures to alleviate the cost of living in Malaysia in a comprehensive manner.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamid chairs the committee, as instructed by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, to ensure the government’s plans to ease the burden of the people would be realised.

Zahid was quoted saying that the would ensure the continuity of other recent announcements made such as the electricity tariff, petrol price and reduction in prices of essential items.

Zahid also holds the portfolio as the Rural and Regional Development Minister.