As long as the poor cannot afford the increasing price of 'low-cost' houses, it is unlikely that the government would succeed in its efforts to rid Malaysia of squatters, a social activist said.

S Arutchelvan told malaysiakini the government was "never serious" in implementing low-cost housing schemes for the poor.

He claimed that the really poor cannot afford RM35,000 for a 'low-cost' house in Selangor.

"RM35,000 is quite high. Even the old price of RM25,000 was already high. Now it's even worse. So, the people who end up buying the (low- and medium-cost) houses are the middle-class," he lamented.

Many of them managed to purchase the low-cost houses meant for the poor through political connections, said Arutchelvan.

The Sun yesterday reported Selangor Mentri Besar Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo as urging estate workers and squatters to take up the RM35,000 'low-cost' houses offered by the state government.

Mohamad was reported as saying that developers could no longer build low-cost units for less than RM35,000 per unit as the cost of land had increased and cross-subsidies from commercial properties had been reduced sharply.

Take it up

He advised the estate workers and squatters who are still protesting about the price to take up the units as full-financing can be obtained under the state government's special loan scheme with the Arab-Malaysian Bank.

In its front-page news today, The Sun reported that the government would eradicate the squatter problem by year 2005 via various public housing schemes.

Housing and Local Government Minister Ong Ka Ting was reported as saying that the houses built under the public housing scheme in Kuala Lumpur had exceeded the number of squatter houses found in the city and the aim now was to achieve the "zero-squatter policy".

The minister was speaking to journalists after the launching of World Habitat Day 2001 by Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in Petaling Jaya yesterday.

The international theme for the celebration this year is "Cities without slums".

"Definitely cannot," was the answer given by Arutchelvan when asked if the government would be able to achieve the housing objective.

He explained that the Malaysian government has never met its target of providing low-cost houses for the people since the implementation of the First Malaysia Plan which ended in 1970.

Shortfall increased

According to the 1996 Malaysia National Report, the shortfall in low-cost houses has increased from 12,478 units during the First Malaysia Plan (1966-1970) to about 110,440 units during the Sixth Malaysia Plan (1991-1995).

Arutchelvan illustrated the situation where squatters are still residing in long-houses although the government promised to provide them with low-cost houses years ago.

"If you look at Kampung Medan, Jinjang and Balakong, people have been living there for 10 to 15 years. Why haven't they got their houses yet?" he asked.

According to the Urban Resource Unit (URU), most of the ex-squatters who now live in the long-houses were promised the RM25,000 low-cost houses 10 years ago but now the price has increased to RM35,000.

URU coordinator S Parameswari explained that most of the squatters could not afford the price of a low-cost house as they were earning less than RM1,000 per month.

"It's not the people's fault. The government has the political power to stop the price from rising. Why don't they do it and who introduced this price?" Parameswari asked.

URU is a resource centre dedicated to collecting information about squatters from various groups, such as the Urban Pioneers Support Committee, that organise activities for the urban grassroots in squatter areas.

Human rights groups such as Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) in its Malaysian Human Rights Report published in 1998 stated that squatters make up about 15 to 20 percent of the biggest cities in Malaysia.

The 1996 Malaysia National Report stated that approximately 423,000 people are residing in squatter settlements in Kuala Lumpur, while the Petaling Jaya municipal council estimated that the area had about 52,000 squatters in 1993.