What assurance is there that the target under 10thMalaysia Plan will be fulfilled?

Under 9thMalaysia Plan only 80% of the targeted lower costs houses were built. What assurance is there that the target under 10th Malaysia Plan will be fulfilled?

Yesterday, during question and answer session in the Parliament, Minister of Housing Dato Kong Cho Ha was asked why there was a lack of interest to build low cost houses.

The Minister replied that the Government was committed to build low houses and had specifically targeted to build 171, 000 low costs houses in the 10th Malaysia Plan. He also said the Finance Ministry and other Ministries were also involved in building low cost houses.

Subsequently, I raised a supplementary question and said the Ministry had failed the lower income group as the targeted number of low cost house and "rumah mampu milik" had not been met under the 9thMalaysia Plan. Thus how can one trust if the proposed target could be met under the 10th Malaysia Plan.

I further said that in Perak, the BN State Government had also failed to achieve the “zero squatters by 2010” target and the promised resettlement of Kg.Tai Lee and Gunong Cheroh squatters.

The Minister replied that land was a state matter and the Federal Government was unable to get state Governments like Selangor to deliver.

I interrupted him and said that I had asked about Perak and not Selangor. He told the Speaker that I was interfering in his reply.

Many times when Ministers reply in the Parliament, they fail to reply specifically on questions posed by MP's. This results in shouting matches which benefits no one.

Unfortunately in Malaysia, the Speaker does not insist ministers to answer specifically on matters raised. Thus generally ministers get away with little embarrassment.

The Minister also did say that under the 9th Malaysia Plan, the Ministry had achieved 80% of the low cost houses target. For unknown reasons, 20 % of low cost houses were not built.

If under the 9thMalaysia Plan the target could not be met, what more in the 10thMalaysa Plan?

There needs to be real commitment by the Government to resolve the housing plight faced by the lower income group.