<figure id="attachment_2966556" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2966556" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-2966556 size-full" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/a24a4ebd-chairman-of-the-malaysian-water-services-commission-span-charles-santiago-1.webp" alt="Charles Santiago" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-2966556" class="wp-caption-text">Former Klang MP Charles Santiago said the latest data on childhood stunting paints a &#8216;national emergency hiding in plain sight&#8217;.</figcaption></figure>
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 &#8220;national emergency hiding in plain sight&#8221;, attributing it to policy failures and misplaced priorities in government spending.
&#8220;This is not a medical failure. It is a governance failure. It reflects policy choices, budget priorities and political neglect.
&#8220;We spend billions on mega-projects, bailouts and prestige infrastructure, yet allow children to grow up undernourished in both rural and urban communities.
&#8220;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,&#8221; 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&#8217;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.
&#8220;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.&#8221;

MatchPoint Times

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

Charles Santiago says rising child malnutrition reflects policy failure and misplaced priorities in government spending, despite Malaysia’s economic growth.

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