07-01-2021, 09:32 AM
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We are in a wrong kind of Malaysia: starving families are flying white flags outside their homes, seeking food and assistance.
Sadly, Malaysia is the new face of hunger.
Unparalleled demand for food aid is on the rise and many rely on charity for food.
The fear of being unable to feed their children hangs over the days of people whose livelihoods have been snuffed out by local economies battered by lockdowns.
Periodical one-off assistance by the government has had little effect. The poverty line is bulging.
The white flag of hunger is a sure sign of rising anger against the Muhyiddin administration that has failed to get the Covid-19 crisis under control.
There will be great relief if the government instead waved the white flag. Surely, the time to admit defeat has come.
The surge in hunger comes amid an indefinite lockdown, spiralling Covid-19 infections and deaths, soaring suicide rates, and everything else that drives a nation into a state of deep depression.
![[Image: white-flag-bukit-mertajam-emel-pic-010721-1-1.jpg]](https://s3media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/white-flag-bukit-mertajam-emel-pic-010721-1-1.jpg)
White flags at three homes in Bukit Mertajam, Penang.
The hawker who almost gave up on life, lives in the middle house.
(Steven Sim Twitter pic)
The very texture of our daily life is under assault, casting a morbid, sinking feeling.
Such is the temperature of unrelenting grief, that it is hard to avoid the sense the government has little appetite for the heartbreaking issue: “How am I going to put food on the table for my family?”
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