SIBU: The federal government should first instruct the central bank to solve the problem of housing loans before talking about affordable housing, opines Tiew Yen Houng.
The Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) treasurer pointed out that “otherwise, no matter how good the policy is, it will only be just empty promises and can’t actually help the B40 and M40 groups.”
“From previous programmes such as Prima and SPNB till the recent Affordable Housing Scheme (RMM), the government’s policies to help the people who cannot afford to buy their own house seem to be good.
“However, the low-income groups are faced with the main difficulty of obtaining bank loans. Even if the application is approved, the loan T&C is strict,” she said here yesterday.
Tiew said according to her understanding, generally banks would not like to lend to low-income earners.
She said this trend had existed for a long time, and today it had evolved into a disguised “discrimination” culture in the financial industry.
“As a result, many young people often have no financial sources to apply for loans when buying a house or starting a business.”
Along the way, she said the affordable housing launched by the government had not benefitted the majority of B40 and M40 groups.
“Only those civil servants who can apply for government loans are eligible to buy. As for low-income earners in the private sector, almost all of their applications are rejected.
“The government keeps saying that it wants to help low-income people buy houses to achieve the goal of home ownership.
“However, Bank Negara has not eased the loan terms and conditions. This is ironic. Maybe the so-called help targets are only for civil servants so as to achieve their political agenda.
“Putrajaya senior officials are eager to launch the affordable housing policy, which proves that the proportion of those who don’t own a house in the country is still very high.
“Do they really know nothing about the fact that low-income groups cannot obtain bank loans? Or avoid certain political factors and choose to turn a blind eye on the issue?
“Many families who can’t afford a house have complained to us that the government has given them hope again and again, but it has ripped apart their dreams again and again because they can’t get a loan from the bank.
“This situation has already affected young people and has caused a negative impact and affected their confidence to fight for a better life.”
She urged the federal government to show enough sincerity to solve the problem of commercial banks not lending, instead of continuously launching so-called assistance programmes, such as RM10,000 assistance for first-time buyers and affordable housing, to create one dream after another.
In addition, Tiew said that since Parliament had passed the amendment to the constitution to restore the equal status of the three states of Sarawak, the power structure of the original three states must be fully constitutionalised and redistributed and implemented, including the decision-making power of the bank.
At this stage, she lamented that even the simplest car loan had to be decided by the bank headquarters in Malaysia, not to mention the mortgage and other loans.
“If Sarawak is on an equal footing, the top bankers in Sarawak should be powerful enough to make their own decisions on loan matters.”
She stressed that the federal government must respect the constitutional spirit of MA63 and quickly hand over all the powers that belonged to Sarawak, including the appointment of department heads.
