So, what is this economic disparity? Well, according to IZA, World of Labour, economic inequality is the unequal distribution of income and opportunity between different groups in society. It is a concern in almost all countries around the world and often people are trapped in poverty with little chance to climb up the social ladder.

Photo taken by Johnny Miller at South Africa where Apartheid was implemented.

Source: https://www.diyphotography.net/dramatic-drone-photos-show-thin-line-divides-rich-poor/

The talk started at 8 o’clock sharp with the narrator showing us an incredibly well-made video titled “UN75 - The Biggest-Ever Global Conversation Towards the Future We Want” for the 75th anniversary of the United Nations which was coincidentally two days ago. It had the beautiful message of “shared problems, shared solutions” with appearances from well-known figures such as Greta Thunberg, Millie Bobby Brown and António Guterres. One of the main goals of the UN is to solve the global issue on economic disparity.

The mic was then passed to Mr. Calvin, the President of Teach for Malaysia - an independent organization aiming to give all Malaysian children the opportunity to attain excellent education. Mr. Calvin shared some of the heart-wrenching effects of economic disparity had on his students - getting to school half-asleep and falling behind in classes due to the need of taking part-time jobs in their free times. He was also quick to point out how in school, we were always taught of the beautiful sentences about diversity in Malaysia, but never about the disparities.

As his closing message, Mr. Calvin prompted the audience to ponder on the following questions:

After that, Prof. Jomo gave an enlightening answer to the question of how poverty differs from economic disparity. Poverty is a highly specific term that means a sense of deprivation. The lack of natural resources to have a healthy meal, education, healthcare, personal hygiene and daily necessities. An interesting thought was given by Prof. Jomo that happiness is more about inequality than poverty. We tend to think relative to the people around us. “If you are below the poverty line, and you’re in the company of others who are similarly deprived, you may not feel especially deprived.” Economic disparity is the awareness that there’s about 2000 billionaires who could live in ways that many people recognize as at their expense. He also brought onto the table a bigger picture that is less talked about; International economic disparities in Malaysia due to colonization from the west.

Moving on, Mr. Sivarajan, the Secretary General of Parti Sosialis Malaysia, gave an eye-opening explanation on what economic disparity is to him. Did you know that there are also disparities within the working class? Mr. Sivarajan added, “A person can go to work for 8 or 12 hours a day, and he is poor. Why is that?”. According to Mr. Sivarajan, the workers of each industry, no matter how insignificant, are all producing value. So why is there such a big difference in distribution in wealth? The salary scales largely from the top of management to the bottom feeders. A director for a government linked company could be earning anything from RM150,000 per month while the lowest ranked worker would only be earning the basic wage of RM1,200. He ended his speech by reminding us how important addressing this issue is as it will perpetuate in the long term.

The next speaker of the night, Ms. Archana is the Asian regional representative for the Commonwealth Youth Council. She focuses on differences in opportunities given to youths in different states compared to “richer” states which have more prominent platforms that many youths from other states have no access to. “Many youths in Malaysia are not given the right cutting-edge experience that they need in policy-making and mission-building processes among so many other things.” She also compared the graduates in Malaysia and their job opportunities depending on where they were born. A graduate at KL could be a top manager while someone in the rural areas could only do a minimum wage job for the same qualifications.

Ms. Archana also suggested two contributions youths can make in battling economic disparity. One is to spread awareness by using social media to promote the issue or talk to your friends, parents and have more conversations in general about these so called “uncomfortable conversations”. Secondly, get yourself involved with NGOs. Volunteer yourself!

Later that night, a Q&A session started off with a powerful question to the panelists from one of the audience members. Would the relocation of the big companies from the richer part of the country to the less fortunate help in development in those places? Dr. Jomo said that it’s impossible for there to be equal development in all states. This is mainly due to two factors:

The meeting zoomed by fast and by the time we knew it, we were listening to the closing quote. Mr. Calvin provided a perfect quote from Mahatma Gandhi to inspire us all to take this issue more seriously; “The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.”

The words said on stage today were something truly special and everyone surely left as a different person. Economic disparity is a global issue that needs more attention from not only the government, but also the youths and everyone in between. For more information, please search google with the keywords; ‘Income inequality in Malaysia’, ’Poverty threshold’ and ‘Teach for Malaysia’.