HARDCORE-poor Chinese in Kuala Lumpur are struggling to make a living while the myth prevails that those of the race in Malaysia are all rich.

While absolute poverty is almost eradicated at 0.1% among the Chinese, there are many who earn below the minimum wage in the community.

The Malaysian Insight recently visited Jalan Peel in Cheras and Pudu in the city centre and discovered some of those earning less than RM1,000 a month scavenging among the garbage to survive.

Elderly couple Chong Song Yin and his wife, Yuen Ken have been squatting in Jalan Peel, for 60 years. 

The hut they live in is an illegal structure but it is supplied wth water and electricity. They receive RM400 each month from their daughter.

The amount was not enough, they said, as besides utility bills, they had medical bills to pay.

“We are too old to work and have to depend on our child for pocket money. I don’t feel good because I feel I am a burden to her.

“And even though we get RM300 or RM400 monthly, that’s not enough. Things are expensive in Kuala Lumpur and this is not a rural area,” said Chong, who is 82.

He and his 73-year-old wife used to run a stall selling noodles and nasi lemak. But the arrival of Sunway Velocity Mall put an end to the business. They were told by the local authorities to stop selling food near the seven-storey mall, which opened in December 2016, in Cheras.

“So we became jobless. It’s very difficult. I have heart disease while my wife cannot walk long distances due to health issues,” he said.

Representatives of a non-governmental organisation used to visit and provide some aid but Chong said it has been a while since the last visit.

Another Jalan Peel squatter, Tang Poh Mei, said she was earning RM1,500 a month making cookies and rice dumplings only because Chinese New Year was around the corner.

The 43-year-old said she earned less at other times of year. She supports a household of five people – her husband, their two young children, and her mother-in-law.

Her husband offers freelance maintenance services and his income is uncertain.

“Our expenses are not that high because our family eats very simply. Some soup, eggs… that’s it,” she said. 

Tang is concerned that the government wants to move the family into a People’s Housing Project (PPR) in Puchong, which means she will have to pay more for her children’s transport to school.

“My house gets flooded when it rains, but I am happy to stay here, it’s more convenient for us. I hope I can stay here forever. 

“My two kids attend a government-run kindergarten nearby, and I walk them to school.

“If we move to Puchong, the rent, water and electricity bills will increase. We will have to pay more and we can’t afford it,” said Tang. 

The Malaysian Insight previously reported that relocation to low-cost flats did not mean improved quality of life for squatters, who were now burdened with more bills while lacking the space to grow their own food.

Tang’s worries include medical bills, though subsidised, for her 89-year-old mother-in-law who gets treatment at Kuala Lumpur Hospital.

“I don’t think we can afford to stay at a PPR with our current income, unless they assign us to one that is nearby (where they live now),” she said, adding that she had applied for and received cash aid BR1M two years ago, but had not applied again.

Another resident in the area, Chong Yew Shen, earns around RM900 a month collecting rubbish for recycling.

RM150 goes to the rent on a house, which floods when it rains, and where he has lived alone for seven years.

“I am from Kuala Lumpur but I don’t have a family, I don’t know where they are,” he said.

It is difficult for him to get a job because he did not attend school, he said.

Chong applied for BR1M but was rejected.

Chinese mainly wage earners

The Edge reported last month that the intra-ethnic income gap was the highest among the Chinese compared with the Indians and Bumiputera.

DM Analytics chief economist Muhammed Abdul Khalid told The Malaysian Insight that 70% of Chinese in Malaysia were working class, quashing the myth that the majority of them were wealthy.

Furthermore, half the number of Chinese who work earned a monthly salary of less than RM2,350, he said.

The elderly Chinese folk in the city who were interviewed earned even less, such as Pudu resident Chong Sui Lin, 77, who relies on BR1M and the kindness of her landlord and her fellow tenants.

She has known the landlord’s family since she was 17, when she was hired as a helper. Now she is a housekeeper of sorts to the landlord’s three women tenants.

“I am working as a ‘kakak’ for them, as a helper and housekeeper. I cook for the family and do the cleaning. I have never married and I am now old. I have no choice but to stay here,” she said in Jalan Chin Chin.

Sui Lin has lived in the house in Pudu for 60 years. She gets help from the landlord’s son, of whom she had taken care when he was a child. She also collects recyclables to sell

There are days she has only a bowl of soup to eat.  

Near Bank Negara in Jalan Dato Onn, Lim Hai Sheng from Johor can often be found waiting for the soup kitchens to dole out food.

The 39-year-old earns RM2,000 a month as a hawker in Petaling Street but it is not enough because he needs to pay rent of nearly RM1,000 a month if he wishes to live in decent conditions in the city.

“Rent is so expensive and still the owner will divide the space into more rooms to rent out to foreign workers.

“There could be 20 to a room and I can’t endure that. I would rather live in the street,” said Lim, who is now homeless. – January 20, 2018.