What DAP is getting right and wrong in Penang

I spent the last weekend working in Penang while taking some time to attend DAP’s Deepavali function at the chief minister’s own parliamentary district.

Of course, my “tour guide” was openly marketing my supposed “pro-Umno macai” status which I find personally hilarious since the other side of the aisle thinks I happen to be “pro-opposition”.

Since I am in Penang, there were a few things that I must say DAP is getting right, and that one thing totally wrong beyond daft.

Correct about housing

Deputy Chief Minister II Prof P. Ramasamy was right in pointing out that there was an urgent need for affordable, low- and medium-cost housing.

He was also right in his Deepavali speech, where he asked why there were delays developing these while the state government could do so better and was already prepared to hand over the keys.

Ramasamy basically highlighted the biggest problem with housing developing, which was the state government knew their needs better than the federal government.

As such, when there is a different political entity running the state and the federal levels respectively, things go awry.

The issue for housing that Malaysians can afford (not what the industry brands as “affordable”) is also stymied by corruption.

This was clearly the case highlighted by the multiple cases in both Selangor and even Kuala Lumpur, specifically the Keramat area.

In the case of Selangor, the government drew flak when Datum proposed a mixed development high rise, high priced complex in the land they own in the area.

On the other hand, there is now a scandal of how land gazetted for low- or medium-cost housing was sold to a company established less than six months ago by the Kuala Lumpur City Hall.

Thus, the federal government truly needs to take a long, hard look at what is going on on the ground.

Especially for the housing and urban wellbeing minister who seems to be more interested in politicking left, right and centre on Twitter rather than focusing on his job.

Correct about Paris

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng at the same event spoke about how the attacks on Paris was not about race nor religion, which was correct.

Religion is being used to justify violent acts everywhere.

In Myanmar, Buddhism is used to defer citizenship and promote violence against the Rohingya.

In the United States, violence against the gay community is done using Christianity.

In India, a writer was murdered for being against idolatry, and a mob destroyed a village rumoured to eat beef and slaughter cows, using Hinduism as justification.

And of course, Islam is being used from Beirut to Paris to justify killing innocent people regardless of whether or not the murdered were Muslims too.

On November 13, it was a Muslim security guard that stopped the terrorists from entering Stade Du France, which could have even harmed French President Francois Hollande.

It was a Muslim restaurant worker who saved two girls when a restaurant was shot up on the same night.

And it was a Muslim police officer that died in the name of Charlie Hebdo’s freedom of speech.

Dead wrong about land reclamation

This one has nothing to do with the Deepavali event but everything to do with Lim as chief minister. It was reported recently that the chief minister justified land reclamation projects by saying the former Barisan Nasional (BN) government reclaimed more.

I had no idea the KPI set by the Penang government in their “Cleaner, Greener, Healthier Penang” campaign was just to do less damage than BN did in the past.

And honestly, if you are setting your targets to be just better than BN instead of talking about best practices on an international scale, that is not setting a high bar at all.

If you must justify land reclamation, at least say that it will need to go through the most stringent of regulatory processes. Not asking for much, am I?

Right about reducing cost of living

The Penang state government also announced again that they will foot the bill for the assessment taxes for low- and medium-cost houses in their state. Similarly, the welfare policies for the state has shown that it is in tune with international level policies.

The fact that all transactions involving the municipal councils are exempted from the goods and services tax (GST) is also a good move that should be emulated on a federal level to some extent – application for licenses, maybe, but not fines.

In fact, this idea was even absorbed by the BN state governments of both Johor and Terengganu.

But do notice that such was never applied by the so-called Pakatan state government of Selangor.

Just needed to point that out to achieve my so-called “Umno macai status”. – November 17, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.