‘My First Home’ scheme won’t work in Sabah

Young graduates in Sabah earn the lowest wages in the country, notes Sabah Progressive Party.

KOTA KINABALU: The government’s “My First Home” scheme aimed at people below 35 years of age is unlikely to take off in Sabah, where the cost of living is unrealistically high and wages low.

Sabah is also home to the country’s poorest people despite the fact that the state is rich in oil and gas.

According to Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) official Clement Lee, the scheme may be workable in peninsular Malaysia but “we need to be realistic in Sabah”.

“This scheme may help in certain states in the peninsula with lower cost of living and we need to be realistic in Sabah.

“How many landed properties like single-terrace or double-storey terraced houses within the Kota Kinabalu area would still have a price tag selling less than or equal to RM220,000 nowadays?” he said, alluding to the caps set on the property price.

The “My First Home” scheme targets young adults earning RM3,000 and less. These housebuyers will be entitled to get a full loan for houses between RM100,000 and RM220,000 anywhere in the country. Some 25 financial instutitions are participating in the scheme.

Lee said the first setback of the scheme for Sabahan youths was the “minimum salary” condition.

He added that the second obstacle was that the scheme only applied to employees and did not include business operators like stall owners and vegetable sellers.

According to him, young graduates in Sabah are the lowest paid in the country.

“Parents spend hundreds of thousands of ringgit to educate their children abroad because local universities have rejected them because of the quota system.

“Unfortunately, these graduates come home to serve in companies which pay them less than RM2,000 per month,” he said.

Working abroad

Lee said that as a result of the poor wage system in the state, many young Sabahans left to work abroad.

He added that the government had failed to uplift the standard of living in Sabah, thus contributing to the brain drain.

“It’s the government’s fault… it has failed to uplift the standard of living of Sabahans.

“They’ve forced our young professional and semi-professional adults to leave their hometowns to work in other countries like Singapore, Australia, China, Europe and the Middle East, which offer higher salaries.”

“SAPP cannot see the logic why the government has failed to uplift the standard of living, especially since it earned huge profits from the surge in global oil and gas prices.

“The only logic is that the government is encouraging young adults to buy houses outside Kota Kinabalu and travel to work in the city.

“This would only burden them further with extra fuel expenses,” he said.