I saw that his motorcycle was indeed stuffed with a straw mat and a few clothes in plastic bags.

“I don’t need your money!” he shouted, tears flowing rapidly down his cheeks. “Just by seeing that you believed what I said was enough. That’s happier than winning the lottery, happier than eating a full meal.”

“Just take it, please,” I said as I moved closer to him. But he moved further away.

“I lost everything, and I can’t believe I could still see someone who believed in me…”

On my journey to the office, I couldn’t stop thinking about the man with the motorcycle. I don’t know his full story nor will I know if this was part of his routine to extract money from unassuming people like me.

But it was plausible that he was one of the thousands of untold stories: Devastated by the pandemic, having lost everything from food to shelter, falling between the cracks of the system.

Rosy picture

Ironically, on the same day, the Department of Statistics Malaysia released a report that celebrated a recovering economy, as our country’s unemployment rate dipped below four percent for the first time since the pandemic.

“Economic activities continued to flourish,” it said. The report lauded a series of government programs, including the Prihatin packages, that sustained the economy.

Two weeks prior, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz shared similar optimism. He said Malaysia’s economy was on the right track, and April’s inflation rate of 2.2 percent was “still good”.

Why is there a contrast between what the official numbers show and what the people feel? What would happen if I just told the motorcycle man he couldn’t be unemployed because our unemployment rate is only 3.9 percent?

I believed him because I, too, saw many mainstay businesses shut down as recently as last month because of the compounding economic effects of Covid-19. An economic downturn kills you fast; an economic recovery benefits you slowly.

The unemployment rate captures only a snapshot of the economy. It considers anyone who worked at least one hour for pay or profit “employed”. It does not take into account people who are underpaid or temporarily employed.

If all the top overseas graduates now work as cashiers at McDonald’s, they would still be considered “employed” in the rosy index.

The unemployment rate certainly does not take into account people like the motorcycle man, who may have tried really hard to find a job, lost hope entirely, and are now sleeping on the streets. They are just eliminated from the system.

Reality remains

Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming wrote about how the inflation index could mask true increases in prices because of how it measures.

Peering through, he found that 3kg of cooking oil increased 37.2 percent in April, Grade A eggs at 22.7 percent, 500g sweetened creamer by 18.9 percent and 1kg chicken by 10.7 percent - all significantly higher than the reported four percent.

Mimicking the Big Mac index, The Vibes also came up with the Roti Canai and Teh Tarik Index recently to better capture price increases the way it was felt on the ground.

The reality remains. The economy is still bad and it has a disproportionate impact on certain groups more than others.

Wealthy people are unlikely to be unemployed and while everyone fears the worst about the economy, poor people do not have a safety net to cushion the shock – they just sink and sleep on the streets.

In the back-and-forth with the motorcycle man, I made a pathetic attempt to console him.

When he said there are no good people, I told him there will be many. When he said nobody will believe him, I told him some would.

When he said his life was over, I told him it will be better. His voice was louder than mine, and as I spoke, my voice got softer as I no longer believed what I said.

I walked closer to him and held out my RM5. But he took a couple of steps back and eventually drove off, mumbling how dreadful his life was. The green paper note is still in my pocket.