Viewpoint: 'BN sold more land than Pakatan Rakyat'

FOR those who claim that Penang state government is relying solely on selling off all state land in the state to generate revenue, this is untrue as Barisan Nasional has sold 35 times more land than Pakatan Rakyat and yet received less money.

This issue has been explained many times, even before last year's general elections but the BN-controlled mass media have never published our replies allowing irresponsible BN leaders to regurgitate their lies serially every year.

Fortunately, the Penang people can distinguish truth from lies and accept the fact that BN has sold at least 3,661 acres of land for RM1.0586 billion as compared to PR selling only 106.1 acres for a higher return of RM1.1102 billion.

BN sold 3,661 acres of land but even though BN sold 35 times more land than PR’s 106.1 acres, PR got more money because PR’s land sales were conducted by open competitive tender. This fact of PR conducting open competitive tender was one of the reasons why PR was returned with the largest mandate in Penang’s history with 68% of the popular vote in the general election.

From the sale of 106 acres by open tender generating RM1.102 billion, the state government has allocated RM500 million Public and Affordable Housing Scheme(PAHS) Fund to build over 20,000 units of affordable housing throughout the five districts of Penang. This RM500 million PAHS Fund is the largest allocated by any state government in Malaysia, and the state government is willing to increase the allocation where necessary.

Some of the public housing is being designed by Singapore government’s Housing Development Board(HDB) so that the poor can also enjoy quality living. Penang is also the first pioneer in Shared Ownership Scheme(SOS) to help the poor who could not get 100% bank loans to buy their houses through the state government giving them 30% of the purchase price as interest free loans. At the same time, the state government has also purchased flats for rental-purchase in Seberang Perai Selatan.

Again it is untrue that PR is not building houses for the poor.

Lim Guan Eng is the fourth Chief Minister of the State of Penang and the current Secretary-General of the Malaysian Democratic Action Party

--fz.com