Kuching, Sarawak · Since 2019
A Company Built Around Patient Reading
Saltmarrow exists because understanding what published economic data actually says — and what it does not — takes more care than most media coverage affords.
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How Saltmarrow Came to Be
Saltmarrow was founded in Kuching in 2019 by a small group of educators and former public servants who had spent years watching how inflation discussions played out — in newspapers, in community halls, in households — and noticing that something kept going wrong. The data was publicly available. The publications were free to read. Yet most people, even educated ones, found them impenetrable or, worse, felt compelled to take commentators' interpretations on trust.
The founders believed that what was missing was not more data, and not more advice, but rather more reading ability. The same kind of careful, patient attention that makes someone a good reader of, say, a lease agreement or a government tender — that ability to sit with a document, understand what it does and does not claim, and hold its findings without reacting immediately — was simply absent from most people's relationship with CPI publications and Bank Negara reports.
Saltmarrow's first programme ran in January 2019 with eight participants around a table in Padungan. The core format has remained the same since: printed materials, small groups, facilitated discussion, and a deliberate avoidance of advice-giving. What has changed is the depth and range of subject matter, and the addition of longer cohort formats for adults who want to work through these ideas over several weeks.
The name comes from saltmarsh vegetation — plants that grow at the edge of tidal flats, able to hold their ground under repeated change. It is not a dramatic metaphor. It is simply about staying put and reading what is there.
Mission
To help adults in Malaysia develop the reading skills needed to engage with publicly published inflation and cost-of-living data as informed, steady readers — not as investors, speculators, or alarm-prone consumers of commentary.
Values
- Patience over urgency
- Reading over reacting
- Clarity over complexity
- Education without advice
- Printed material over screens
Founded
2019
Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia
The People
Who Runs the Programmes
Ahmad Wazir
Founder & Lead Facilitator
Former economics lecturer with fifteen years of experience translating statistical publications for non-specialist audiences in Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia.
Lim Hui Fen
Programme Design & Materials
Brings a background in curriculum development to the printed workbooks and reference sheets that accompany each programme. Based in Kuching since 2014.
Suriani Putri
Cohort Facilitation & Administration
Runs the Household Cost Tracking Programme and supports the Long-Horizon cohort as a co-facilitator. Handles all participant enquiries and scheduling.
Our Standards
How We Hold Ourselves Accountable
These are not marketing commitments. They are the operating standards we apply to every programme session and every document we put in participants' hands.
No Advice, Ever
Facilitators are trained to redirect any conversation that moves toward individual financial advice. This is maintained consistently, not selectively.
Primary Sources Only
All data referenced in sessions comes from DOSM, Bank Negara Malaysia, and other official publishers. Secondary interpretations are labelled as such.
Participant Privacy
Personal information collected at registration is used only for programme delivery and direct communication. It is never shared with third parties.
Materials Reviewed Annually
Printed workbooks and reference sheets are reviewed and updated at least once per year against current DOSM methodology notes and publication formats.
Small Group Sizes
We cap cohort numbers to maintain the quality of facilitated discussion. When demand exceeds capacity, we open a subsequent intake rather than enlarge the group.
Post-Programme Feedback
Every participant is invited to give structured feedback after completing a programme. Responses inform the next intake's materials and facilitation approach.
Context & Approach
Inflation Literacy in the Malaysian Context
Malaysia's headline CPI figures are published monthly by the Department of Statistics Malaysia. They track a defined basket of goods and services, weighted by spending patterns derived from the Household Expenditure Survey. Reading these figures carefully means understanding what that basket contains, how it is weighted, and why a national average may not map cleanly onto any particular household's experience — especially in Sarawak, where market structures and supply chains differ from Peninsular Malaysia in ways that affect local prices.
Saltmarrow's programmes do not argue that national CPI figures are wrong. They help participants understand what these figures are designed to measure and what they are not designed to measure. A household with a particular spending pattern — heavy on locally grown produce, light on transport, for instance — will experience price changes differently from the national average, and reading the CPI publication clearly helps participants hold that difference consciously rather than being surprised or misled by it.
The Long-Horizon Almanac Cohort, our most extended programme, works through concepts over ten weeks because the reading ability we are developing is not absorbed in a single session. Participants come back each week having had time to look at something in their own household, compare it with a published figure, and bring questions to the group. That rhythm — observation, comparison, discussion — is the core of what we offer.
Next Steps
Curious About Our Approach?
Write to us with any questions about how the programmes work, what to expect on the first session, or whether a particular programme suits your situation. There is no pressure to commit before you are ready.
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