Human Writes: Ordinary Malaysians step up as families become desperate

A white flag indicating a family in urgent need of aid spotted at low cost flats at Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur. — YAP CHEE HONG/The Star

People are hungry. Children are going to bed hungry. Desperate parents are even feeding children condensed milk diluted with water, scavenging dumpsters or searching the wild for food. Bank accounts are dormant, long unused. Babies are being abandoned. Suicide cases are rising – a few occur every day.

These are stories of the poor I’ve heard coming out of Malaysia. How ironic that we once had a vision of being a developed nation by 2020. Instead, here we are in 2021, seeing unfathomable deprivation.