Guan Eng-Rahman Dahlan spat continues in Parliament

The spat between Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng (DAP-Bagan) and Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan (BN - Kota Belud) continued through written questions and answers in Parliament yesterday, despite their debate being called off.

In his question, Lim quizzed the minister on whether his ministry intends to raise the ceiling prices of affordable housing; from RM42,000 per unit to RM65,000 per unit for low-cost housing, and from RM72,500 to RM100,000 for lower medium cost housing.

Lim had made the allegation before, and is one of the questions he intended to ask in the now-aborted debate.

He previously claimed that the Penang state government has opposed to the move.

Meanwhile, in his written response distributed to MPs today, Rahman said the government has set the ceiling price of affordable houses at RM300,000 per unit, through the National Housing Board.

“This price had been discussed and agreed upon by exco members on housing of all states.

“The move would allow for a more accurate interpretation of the definition of affordable housing, and makes it easier for various parties to conduct monitoring,” he said.

On Lim’s query on where affordable housing projects had been built in Penang between 2001 to 2015, and by whom, Rahman provided a table of figures.

It states that two projects have been completed thus far – 316 units at Taman Manggis in the Tanjung parliamentary constituency, and 382 units at Jalan Thamby, Butterworth, in the Bagan constituency.

Arguing over affordable housing

Meanwhile, another two projects are still under construction – 231 units at Kampung Tok Suboh, Seberang Perai Tengah, in the Batu Kawan constituency, and 70 units at Mak Mandin, Butterworth, in the Bagan constituency.

This bring the total of affordable housing built or under construction to 999 units. However, the minister is silent on who built the housing units.

Lim previously claimed that previous BN-led Penang administration had built only 5,124 units of public housing between 2001 to 2007, compared to 16,199 units between 2008 to 2015 under the Pakatan Harapan (and previously Pakatan Rakyat) administration.

The duo had been arguing over affordable housing issues since allegations emerged that the Penang government had purportedly sold land earmarked for a public housing project for building a dental hospital instead.

Lim and his cabinet members had denied this and insisted that the sale was above board.

Lim and Rahman were supposed to argue over these and other issues on live televised debate on April 19, but the debate was called off following advice of the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

The two enforcement bodies had expressed concern that the debate would jeapordise their respective investigations into the matter.-Mkini