Abdul Rahman Dahlan, Minister for Urban Well Being, Housing and Local Government should not behave like an empty vessel and politicise the issue of low cost, low medium cost and affordable housing in Malaysia.
During the Q&A session in Parliament yesterday, Ahmad Rahman Dahlan accused Bagan MP who is also Chief Minister of Penang for shifting the blame on the Federal Government that the price of affordable housing is capped at RM400,000 and attempted to worm his way out of the claim and then called the PM a liar.
He went on to say that PR1MA homes were sold at RM400,000 with an area space of 1,200 square feet and that RM400,000 homes with only 900 square feet was sold in Penang. Where in Penang was the application for PR1MA homes at RM400,000 for 1,200 square feet? Either Abdul Rahman Dahlan has not done enough research on this matter or is grossly ignorant, applications submitted to the Penang State Government by PR1MA is at RM400,000 for 900 square feet! The very thing that the minister is accusing Penang of.
If at all, it was Abdul Rahman Dahlan who had misled the house yesterday and lied about the RM400,000 cap on affordable housing imposed by his very own ministry and the BN led government through its PR1MA housing schemes.
In an article by The Edge Property dated 21 April 2015, PR1MA Corporation Malaysia (PR1MA) said that the ceiling price of its homes remained at RM400,000, despite its joint ventures with private developers to build affordable homes for Malaysians as reported in The Edge Financial Daily. The report also stated that PR1MA reiterates once again that PR1MA homes have always been priced at between RM100,000 and a maximum of RM400,000. PR1MA has never changed its price range.
Who is the liar now?
In fact, Penang State EXCO for Housing and Town & Country Planning Jagdeep Singh Deo had issued a statement on 15 March and had written to the Chairman of PR1MA Tan Sri Datuk Seri Dr. Alies Anor Bin Abdul on to request an explanation and confirmation on the slanderous lies by BN’s Gerakan towards the Penang State Government.
Gerakan ignorantly accused the Penang State Government that it is catering to provide affordable housing for Penangites at RM400,000; absolutely unaware that so far Penang State Government has currently 12 projects in all 5 districts of Penang consisting of 22,512 units of affordable homes. Penang has rejected PR1MA’s application for affordable housing priced at RM400K and have requested that PR1MA reduce the price of affordable housing in Penang and that the Penang State Government does not accept the high pricing of PR1MA’s affordable housing.
From 2001 to 2007 under the BN led Gerakan government, 4355 units of RM42,000 low cost units and 769 of RM72,500 of low medium cost units had been built in the period of 6 years.
This pales in comparison to 8092 of RM42,000 units and a total of 8107 of RM72,500 built after 2008 after the change of government.
Abdul Rahman Dahlan, should not resort to cheap shots because it reflects on himself and his ministerial portfolio as being malicious, manipulative and politicising an important responsibility of providing affordable housing to Malaysians from all walks of life who have been sucked into a deep pit of low paying wages, economic instability, misappropriation of wealth and the wretched GST.
He must remember that it is in fact PR1MA that has set the range of affordable housing to RM400,000 and not the Penang State Government in its own right.
The rationale of the Penang State Government introducing a price range of RM200,000 to RM400,000 on Penang island and between RM150,000 to RM250,000 on the mainland is so that house buyers who fall in the low-middle income group will be able to purchase these houses at the said prices as they would obviously not qualify for the low cost and low medium cost houses. Following that, the next range would be in the millions which they clearly cannot afford.
Minister for Urban Well Being, Housing and Local Government should look at its own RM400,000 ceiling price of its PR1MAaffordable homes despite joint ventures with private developers to build affordable homes in Malaysia before demonizing the leadership of the Penang State Government and apologise for calling Penang CM Lim Guan Eng a liar.
If Abdul Rahman Dahlan is so cocksure of his fabricated lies against the Penang State Government, we challenge him to make the same allegations and calling Penang CM a liar outside the Parliament.
Source:-
http://www.theedgeproperty.com.my/content/ceiling-price-pr1ma-homes-remains-rm400000