PAS-BACKED Gerakan Pembela Ummah (UMMAH) wants Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to intervene by cancelling the appointment of experts from Singapore’s Housing Development Board (HDB) to solve the housing issue in this country.
This is given that the initiative by Local Government Development Minister Nga Kor Ming risks exposing sensitive government data pertaining to housing development direction and strategies, according to UMMAH’s chairman Mohd Zai Mustafa.
“We are well aware that Singaporean Malays have been sidelined in terms of home ownership with unaffordable house pricing that is beyond their reach,” he justified in a HarakahTV video.
“This has led to many Singaporean Malays having to buy houses in Johor because they could not afford to buy houses in their own country. Will this (idea) be brought and implemented in Malaysia?”
Mohd Zai went on to lament that home ownership initiative in large urban areas has failed to be owned by Malays and Bumiputeras due to high prices even though a quota of 30%t was established.
“The Local Government Development Ministry should focus its efforts and the national housing strategy towards moderate and affordable house prices based on the income of the B40 and M40 groups as well as for the young and youth,” he suggested.
“Issues related to abandoned or ‘sick’ projects should be managed professionally based on the merits of the parties involved such as certified and professional consultants and developers with strong financial capabilities and not based on cronies.”
In a related development, the Johor PAS Youth has suggested the use of solely HDB’s advisory services as practiced by the state government while implementation is carried out by the Johor Housing Development Corporation (PKPJ).
On Jan 20, controversial former Penang Island municipal councilor Iszuree Ibrahim has also taken a swipe at Nga for being over-zealous in seeking the advice of Singapore’s HDB in the course of implementing affordable housing in Malaysia.
The Penang PAS information secretary went on to claim that since the day he was part of the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) government back in 2008, the Penang DAP state government has been “soliciting advice from Singapore’s PAP (People’s Action Party) government to bring about the divide and rule planning” in the state.
Relating his experience when he was a municipal councilor, Iszuree observed that that “all Malay villages had collapsed soon after the 13th General Election (in 2013) and were replaced with condominiums”. – Jan 26, 2023
