KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 7 — DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang today joined the chorus of calls to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to address poverty in the country.

The federal lawmaker said an RCI is necessary to bridge the gap between rich and poor for national harmony. 

“When the marginalised groups in Malaysia can partake in our vision for shared prosperity, we will be able to celebrate Malaysia Day in the future with greater conviction,” he said in a statement.

The Iskandar Puteri MP also came out with a list of his recommended experts to be in the panel should the government set up the poverty RCI. 

They included Malaysian Institute of Economic Research chairman Tan Sri Kamil Salih; interethnic relations and poverty studies researcher Datuk Denison Jayasooria; and Yusof Ishak Institute of Southeast Asian Studies researcher Lee Hwok Aun.

Lim also proposed the inclusion of Associate Professor Madeline Burma who is currently a member of the Malaysian Human Rights Commission, as well as representatives from the World Bank Research Group in Kuala Lumpur and Unicef Malaysia.

He encouraged Malaysians to send in their nominations for members on the proposed RCI too.

He also encouraged Malaysians to propose names of apolitical individuals with technical knowledge and on-the-ground experience in the area of poverty research and policy for the RCI.

Lim noted that Malaysia’s economy has been resilient in the face of global uncertainties and is the only South-east Asian country that saw its GDP growing in the second quarter of the year.

But he cautioned Malaysians not to forget there is still much to do to lift the standards of living, especially for those living on society’s fringe and gave examples of those pushed to the margins.

“It is the family of four living in a low cost apartment in the heart of Kuala Lumpur with a household income of less than RM2,000. It is the single mother in Lumut who has to take care of her four children, after her husband was killed in a motorcycle accident.

“It is a Felda family in Rompin whose incomes have fallen in tandem with the fall in the global Crude Palm Oil prices. It is the families of former rubber estate workers who have to transition to making ends meet in the urbanised world that has developed around them,” he said.

The DAP politician said he was not the only person to speak out on the urgent need to address poverty issues, acknowledging Klang MP Charles Santiago and Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah for raising them even before the May 2018 general election.

Lim hopes the issue would not become a mere technical exercise.

The Consumers Association of Penang called for an RCI last Tuesday to produce a clearer picture of Malaysia’s poverty rate, following the revelation by UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty human rights Philip Alston that 16 to 20 per cent of Malaysians living in poverty is a more realistic figure.