An idea whose time has come – raising Malaysia’s poverty line

REMEMBER 1977? Maybe not, because most of the current Malaysian population had not been born yet.

Back then, Malaysia’s gross national income (GNI) per person was RM200 per month, and the government established a new poverty line income (PLI) of around RM50 per person. Since then, Malaysia has prospered and GNI per capita has risen to more than RM3,800 per month while the PLI has increased only incrementally to RM245 (RM980 for a family of four).