An Analysis of Social Assistance in Malaysia During Covid-19

Amid the outbreak of Covid-19, the Malaysian government under Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has announced two different economic stimulus packages. The first one is a total of RM250 billion ($57 billion) on March 27th 2020 (ASEAN Briefing, 2020a) and the second is a stimulus package of RM10 billion ($2.3 billion) on April 6th 2020 (ASEAN Briefing, 2020b). The Prihatin Rakyat Economic Stimulus program (PRIHATIN) broadly aims to provide social support in the form of cash incentives for marginalised households (MOF, 2020).