Ex-MP urges govt to treat stunting as critical national concern

2026-02-02 - 03:56

Former Klang MP Charles Santiago said the latest data on childhood stunting paints a ‘national emergency hiding in plain sight’. PETALING JAYA: Former Klang MP Charles Santiago has urged the government to treat child stunting as a critical national concern, warning that rising malnutrition among young children threatens long-term human and economic development. Santiago said the latest data on childhood stunting painted a “national emergency hiding in plain sight”, attributing it to policy failures and misplaced priorities in government spending. “This is not a medical failure. It is a governance failure. It reflects policy choices, budget priorities and political neglect. “We spend billions on mega-projects, bailouts and prestige infrastructure, yet allow children to grow up undernourished in both rural and urban communities. “If Malaysia is serious about being a developed nation, stunting must be treated as a critical national issue, not a welfare footnote. A stunted generation becomes a structurally weakened nation,” he said in a Facebook post. The DAP man also said that malnutrition disproportionately affects marginalised groups such as low-income households, refugees, migrant communities, undocumented populations, indigenous groups and the urban poor. He said this in turn affects education outcomes, workforce productivity, healthcare costs and the nation’s long-term economic resilience. He was referring to recent data by Our World in Data showing that the prevalence of stunting among children in Malaysia – defined as being too short for one’s age due to chronic malnutrition – had risen from 20% in 2000 to 24% in the last 25 years. The figures show Malaysia as an outlier among countries with similar economic growth, with most nations now recording stunting rates of below 10% despite comparable income levels. Santiago said the trend was entirely preventable and rooted in poverty, food insecurity, poor maternal nutrition, inadequate healthcare access and structural inequality. “Children should not be paying the price for policy failure. This demands urgent, coordinated action, from nutrition programmes and maternal healthcare to income security and food access.”