Malaysia must resolve malnutrition and its cause, endemic poverty, to progress

Poor families can only afford cheap carbohydrates to fill stomachs but rice alone isn’t nutritious enough to keep children growing healthily. — Filepic

Tell me, how is it that an upper middle-income country like Malaysia has a malnutrition crisis? How come a country listed among the world’s 50 richest countries has an estimated 10 million people who suffered “food insecurity” at some point during the Covid-19 pandemic?

How come a nation with 26,000 official millionaires has almost one in four children living on cheap, unhealthy foods? And isn’t it crazy that in a country with so many types of tropical fruits and indigenous fish there are low-income families that can afford neither fruit nor fish?