The Collapse of Malaysia's Middle Class

Reports emerged that Malaysia’s engine of productivity and economic growth, the urban and industrial conurbation known as the Klang Valley, was at the point of a health system breakdown, its public hospitals treating people on canvas beds in carparks, rubbish strewn all over their floors. According to doctors and other health workers, patients were coming in sicker than ever, and more likely to need ventilators, some dying shortly after arriving. In June, sounding exasperated, former government adviser Muhammed Khalid argued on national broadcaster Astro AWANI that Malaysia has lost its middle class.