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New Straits Times
by Salleh Buang
MY friends in Kedah are wondering whether they should continue to believe
anything coming out from the menteri besar's office.
In October 2008, Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak announced his
administration would increase the Bumiputera housing quota from the 30 per cent
level to 50 per cent effective Sept 1, 2009.
To my mind then, he had good reasons for making the move - Malays comprise 1.5
million of the state's total population of 1.9 million.
That announcement came under heavy fire from several quarters including housing
developers, nongovernmental organisations and politicians.
In a response on Nov 13, 2008, Real Estate and Housing Developers' Association (Rehda)
president Datuk Ng Seing Liong told reporters it would seek a judicial review of
Bumiputera housing quotas "if state governments continue to impose new rulings
on developers".
He said such a course of action would be "the last resort" if the issue could
not be resolved with the respective state governments.
Senior lawyer and columnist Roger Tan said the Kedah government "should have
ruled by law and not by administrative policies" when it announced the 50 per
cent Bumiputera quota for every housing development in the state.
While acknowledging that such a policy "is not new" as other state governments
(including Selangor and Malacca) had that in the past, Tan reiterated "these
policies have been implemented haphazardly throughout the country".
Tan also opined that such a policy contravened Article 8 of the Federal
Constitution.
Rehda past president Datuk Jeffrey Ng Tiong Lip shared the view that such a
policy is unconstitutional. At the Malaysian Law Conference on Oct 29, 2007, he
said the positive discrimination envisaged by Article 153 of the Federal
Constitution covers only "specific areas" and housing is not included in that
list.
In its wishlist for Budget 2009, Rehda hoped the Bumiputera quota policy (which
ranges between 30 and 70 per cent in several states) would be revised to not
exceed 30 per cent in order to boost the housing sector.
Rehda also hoped the Bumiputera discount would be capped at five per cent and
made applicable only for houses priced RM250,000 and below, while the low- and
medium-cost units should be excluded from the discount.
Rehda also wanted the Bumiputera quota "release mechanism" to be standardised,
structured and transparent.
For reasons which many quarters will continue to speculate, the state government
has now deferred the implementation of the 50 per cent Bumiputera quota for new
housing projects in the state.
Explaining the sudden about-turn, Housing and Local Government Committee
chairman Datuk Phahrolrazi Zawawi said the state does not want to go ahead with
the policy because it does not want "the people to be unhappy with any of its
policies".
I wonder who are the "unhappy people" he has in mind. The Bumiputera housebuying
public, with limited means, would certainly be unhappy with this unexpected
abandonment of the new policy. It was targeted to come into effect on Sept 1,
2009.
"We do not want people to claim that a policy is unfair and only favours one
group. We will find a more amicable solution," he told reporters at Wisma Darul
Aman on Jan 7 this year.
The only "happy people" I could think of are the housing developers and those
with their own agendas who shot down Azizan's policy right from the start.
I told my pessimistic friends not to give up hope, reminding them that (as
indicated by Phahrolrazi) the state government is still working on "a more
amicable solution" to the problem.
Salleh Buang is senior advisor of a company specialising in competitive
intelligence. He is also active in training and public speaking and can be
reached at
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