If not reformasi, why not some fairness and equity?

 

For the sake of fairness and equity, let’s take a look at the conduct and performance of Housing and Local Government Minister Nga Kor Ming.

Let me be straight on this: when a minister is put on the mat, it's not personal. It cannot be.

Weeks ago, he proposed nominating Chinese new villages in Selangor as a Unesco World Heritage Site. Where was he coming from? Does he know his priorities? For the record, a World Heritage site, whether cultural or natural, must have “Outstanding Universal Value” ie hold special importance to everyone.

As to the first question, I think I know where he is coming from. It's a place called “Not engaging the brain when the mouth is in gear”. Many of our past and present ministers come from this thriving place of half-truths and hidden motives because they still think they can pull the wool over our eyes.

Obviously, Nga knows very little about Chinese new villages or Malayan history in the period 1948-60. I suspect what little he knows comes from the “influencers” surrounding him, who, like their Malay counterparts, cannot see the “Malaysia” that was built with the blood, sweat, and tears of all the races.

Housing and Local Government Minister Nga Kor Ming

I seriously recommend that for a start he reads Dr Tan Teng Phee’s brilliant PhD thesis (the kind that is obtained through proper research and supervision) published as a book entitled “Behind Barbed Wire” by the Strategic Information and Research Development Centre in 2020.

The subtitle of this book: “Chinese New Villages During The Malayan Emergency, 1948-1960”. First two quick facts: by 1948 the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) had an armed strength of 10,000 guerilla fighters spread over the country, mainly recruited from some 500,000 landless Chinese settlers.

Sensing the time right, the MCP took on the proto-state, Federation of Malaya through violent means. Starting in 1948, they waged a guerilla war on a multiracial Malayan population of some five million. The “fifth column” was slick and sophisticated. Make no mistake, it was an existential struggle.

The curfews, disruption to daily life and the fear of being caught in the middle was real. Ordinary people paid a heavy price. The geopolitical climate wasn’t helpful - the Cold War was hotting up. No one could tell how the Malayan Emergency would end. Enter the New Villages, five thousand in all.

Without a doubt, life was tough for the poor Chinese in these new villages but there was no better way to deal with the situation given that it was nearly impossible to separate those who supported the MCP from those who merely wanted to work hard, feed their families, and dream of a better future.

The authorities were not blind to the hopes and aspirations of the latter group. For this reason, New Villages came with schools, water, electricity, land ownership, and assured meals in communal kitchens. Yes, there were also security and body checks, intimidation, and many instances of abuse and bullying.

However, the new villagers were not the only ones to suffer in this armed struggle to turn the East red, inspired by Mao and the PRC. Millions in estates, remote towns, and kampongs suffered grievously. And the cost of this Emergency set the Malayan economy back by a decade.

Know your priorities

So, what was Nga thinking about when he proposed nominating some yet unnamed new villages in Selangor for this honour of remembering a dark period in our history?

Now for the second question as to whether Nga knows his priorities… I think not!

Ask any Malaysian who has bought a terrace house or a condominium in the past decade or so. Purchasers are routinely short-changed: hollow floors, popped-up tiles, damp and crooked walls, leaky roofs and bathroom floors, misaligned doors and windows, septic tanks that don’t flush properly… an endless list of horrors involving even developers who are public-listed or generally seen as reputable.

If they have not gotten away with enough already, fittings like faucets, locks, hinges, and switches now don’t seem to carry brand names. If they do, we certainly have never heard of them.

Where a pump is provided to deal with low water pressure, its make and specifications are not listed in the S&P. Notice too that the S&P format and contents have remained suspiciously the same over the decades.

Yes, there is a two-year defect liability period but developers know how to tread the fine line between repair and rectification, keenly aware that purchasers do not have the technical knowledge related to the building trade.

No surprise that for years, ordinary folks joked that the ministry headed by Nga should be called the “Ministry of Housing Developers”. Now the joke has become a nightmare.

An army of untrained foreign workers have miraculously become master builders without the requisite skills and training. We must presume they are all quick learners who mastered in a matter of weeks how to mix concrete in the right ratios of sand and cement, properly plaster and align walls, do plumbing and electrical wiring, instal sewage works and sinks and yes, lay the tiles that soon go “pop”!

A good friend, a former developer himself explained that the housing industry is a highly corrupt nexus of state and local governments, politicians, and developers. Is anyone surprised?

And you will never obtain proof of this corruption, euphemistically known in the industry as “money changing hands” because the modus operandi has been perfected to leave no money trail. When was the last time you heard the MACC bust a developer? Or a menteri besar?

Things have gotten so bad that there are now companies offering inspection services at the time of taking possession of your dream house. The very fact that these nicely sectioned and detailed reports are nothing like the ridiculously simple checklists used by developers tells us “Something is more rotten than the state of Denmark in our housing industry”.

Surely, something must be done before we too end up with tofu-dreg buildings and homes. What is to be done?

For a start, developers of housing projects where more than 50 percent of the units have serious defects must be punished or fined given that these same developers use migrant labour and shoddy material to maintain gross margins reportedly at 40 percent.

Mr Minister, it's high time you start cleaning up our new townships and taman. Please leave our old New Villages alone. - Mkini

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MURALE PILLAI is a former planter and now runs a logistics firm.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.