Since the passing of the Perumahan Rakyat 1 Malaysia Act 2012 (Act 739) on Feb 9, 2012, there has been many announcements by the federal government that PR1MA affordable housing would be built in all the states in the country.

As I have stated before, amongst others, in December, 2012, it was announced by PR1MA CEO Mutalib Alias that the federal government would be building affordable housing projects under PR1MA in Penang and that several plots of federal land in Bukit Gelugor had been identified for that purpose, and a further seven more other locations on the island and the mainland had also been identified.

Further, in April, 2013, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak announced that 9,999 affordable housing units would be built in the Air Itam area, and in August, 2013, it was announced by PR1MA that 20,519 affordable housing units would be built in the Greater Klang Valley area, Johor, Penang, Sabah and Sarawak.

Subsequently, in January, 2014, Penang Federal Action Council chairperson Zainal Abidin Osman stated that the locations of PR1MA projects “had been identified but some issues needed to be dealt with before approval is sought from state authorities”.

On Feb 8, 2014, I met personally with Jamaluddin Jarjis, the chairperson of Perbadanan PR1MA Malaysia, in Penang, whereby he had committed that the federal government would proceed with PR1MA projects in Penang and whereby he stated that the federal government was in the process of identifying plots of land and that he would respond to me by June, 2014 with at least three plots identified for the construction of PR1MA affordable housing in Penang, and I wrote to Jamaluddin on Feb 14, 2014 thanking him for meeting me in Penang and giving his commitment as stated hereinbefore.

It is clear that the statements by PR1MA CEO Abdul Mutalib, PR1MA chairperson Jamaluddin and Penang Federal Action Council chairperson Zainal Abidin and Prime Minister Najib himself all clearly reflect that the federal government was in the process of identifying plots of land in Penang for the purpose of building PR1MA affordable housing.

As opposed to the statements by these three individuals, Urban Well-being, Housing and Local Government Minister Rahman Dahlan had on Sept 2, 2014 contradicted them by stating that state governments were to help identify land for affordable housing.

The most recent announcement on the implementation of PR1MA affordable housing projects was by the prime minister in Budget 2015 when a sum of RM1.3 billion was allocated to build 80,000 units of PR1MA affordable housing units. However, he was silent as to how many of these units would be built in Penang?

I have raised this issue before, namely, who is correct? Are PR1MA affordable housing projects actually going to be built in Penang?  

In fact, for the record it should be noted that in light of the earlier statement by PR1MA CEO Mutalib, PR1MA chairperson Jamaluddin, Penang Federal Action Council chairperson Zainal Abidin and the prime miniser himself as hereinbefore adverted to, I had written several letters to them (dated Oct 31, 2013, Dec 10, 2013, Dec 27, 2013, Feb 14, 2014 and July 11, 2014) seeking clarification as to (a) the location of the proposed sites for PR1MA projects in Penang; (b) the number of PR1MA affordable housing units that would be built in Penang and (c) the time-line for the implementation of the said projects.

No response whatsover to date

However, it is unfortunate that to date there has been no response whatsoever to my said correspondences seeking the information as I have requested.

In fact, it should be noted that Chief Minister YAB Tuan Lim Guan Eng himself, vide a letter dated Oct 24, 2014, had written directly to the deputy prime minister referring to my earlier correspondences and requesting for the information as I had requested earlier as regards the implementation of PR1MA in Penang.

Again as of to date, I have verified that there has been no official response to even the said chief minister’s letter requesting for the said information.

To compound matters on the apparent absolute confusion on the part of the federal government as regards whether PR1MA affordable housing will proceed in Penang and as to who is responsible to identify lands for the purposes of building PR1MA affordable housing, an advertorial entitled ‘Welcome to the PR1MA community’ appeared in The Star on Oct 26, 2014, whereby it was stated that PR1MA affordable housing would be built in Bukit Gelugor (2,100 units) and Balik Pulau (9,564 units) in Penang.

The federal government must clarify and come clean as to whether it is actually going to proceed with PR1MA affordable housing in Penang. It must honour its promises to Penangites who deserve such housing having regard to the fact that they are one of the highest tax-payers in the country.

As such, the federal government is urged to forthwith respond officially to the Penang state government as regards its queries pertaining to the status of the implementation of PR1MA affordable housing projects in Penang.

If the Federal government is actually intent on building PR1MA affordable housing projects in Bukit Gelugor and Balik Pulau as per the said advertorial, it should respond to us officially as ultimately the plans for the said project will have to be submitted and approved by the state government.

JAGDEEP SINGH DEO is Penang state exco member for Town & Country Planning and Housing.