The Malaysian Insight

DR Muhammed Abdul Khalid never expected to become a “celebrity” after writing a book on economics four years ago.

The author of The Colour of Inequality, released in 2014, continues to be surprised at the reaction he receives over the book which deals with wealth disparity in Malaysia. 

The 43-year-old economist cannot forget the hug a young man gave him after he spoke at a forum at the upmarket Publika shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur last year.

The man in his 30s, approached Muhammed for an autograph in a copy of the book’s Bahasa Malaysia translation – Antara Dua Darjat: Agihan Pendapatan di Malaysia.

“I could tell that he was not from the Publika crowd. I asked him where he came from and he said he rode on his motorcycle from Penang. I asked him what he did for a living… he said he was a security guard.

“He said ‘I came to thank you for speaking on our behalf’. Then he gave me a hug.

“I am still quite disturbed by this incident because I feel the pressure, maybe people are expecting something and when we give voice to what they feel, they appreciate it,” the economist who once worked with Khazanah Research Institute, the Securities Commission and Institute for Strategic and International Studies.

Muhammad’s analyses of the country’s economic data have shed light on widening inequality within ethnic groups and how good macroeconomic figures have had little trickle-down benefits to the working class.

Footage of him in talk shows with television stations RTM and TV3 last year on the state of the Malaysian economy ahead of the tabling of Budget 2018 has also gone viral, earning him the nickname “pakar ekonomi berjiwa rakyat” (man-in-the-street economist) from viewers (see clip below).

“After the video went viral, I realise that most analysts or economists, when they speak or write, they target policymakers but the layman doesn’t understand.

“I think we should also target the people. If laymen don’t understand what I see or write, there is no meaning,” the Penang-born told The Malaysian Insight.

Education key to success

Now running his own economics consultancy, Muhammed has lived the life of the working class about whom he researchers and writes.

His father was a teacher while his housewife mother sold kuih. Muhammed and his siblings used to help their mother sell the kuih before going to school. The “extra” work, however, did not interfere with his studies.

“I was lucky that my mother placed importance on studies. In those days, when the kampung folk used to go here and there, she stayed back and saved for our schooling. I used to go to a kampung school near Tanjung Tokong and after that, regular (government) school in George Town. It was a ‘gangster’ school.

“I got good results, praise be to God, and was given the opportunity to go to boarding school in Kedah. If not for this chance, I would probably have been a drug addict or worked in a low-paying hotel job,” he said, recalling his teenage years as a pupil at SM Sains Sultan Mohamad Jiwa in Sg Petani.

“This just proves the importance of the quality of an education. It’s not because kampung boys are not smart.

“At boarding school, however, pupils competed academically with one another. I could not sleep at night because the boy next to me in our hostel stayed up to read. I couldn’t play as much football as I wanted when I saw others studying hard.”

Muhammed went on to complete a bachelor’s degree in public affairs at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and then a PhD from the Institute of Political Studies in Paris in 2010.

What real people feel

Muhammed’s firm, DM Analytics, now does consulting for agencies, such as the United Nations and World Bank.

But his first love as an economist is to be on the field as a researcher, talking to ordinary people about what life is really like and whether the positive narrative of Malaysia’s economy holds true for them.

“I love going down the field. Because if we want to work on policy, we cannot just sit in an office.

“We have to be outside to understand what people feel in their situation. When we talk about an issue, it has to be factual and based on data.”

In 2013, Muhammed and another economist, Dr Lee Hwok Aun, who was then with Universiti Malaya, raised eyebrows with their findings from a study into discrimination faced by Malays searching for jobs in Chinese-owned companies and in the private sector. 

Both economists did a field experiment by sending out 3,012 resumes for 753 engineering and accounting jobs and found that between two equally qualified graduates – where one was Malay and the other Chinese – the latter was more likely to be called in for an interview.

Muhammed knows his work often clashes with the government’s positive narrative on the economy but insists that he is not anti-government.

“I’m not anti-government, but I don’t think I need to be talking about only good things all the time. We need to highlight weaknesses so that improvements can be made.

“I hold to what famous Indonesian author Pramoedya Ananta Toer said about courage, that in life, it is the only thing that we own. If you do not have courage, then what is the value of our life?” – January 23, 2018.