KUALA LUMPUR: A late night spat ensued yesterday between Minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan and Michelle Yesudas of Lawyers for Liberty on Twitter centred around the issue of affordable housing in Malaysia.The conversation was sparked when Michelle tagged the Kota Belud MP in her tweet that read: “Makes my blood boil that we are unable to make politicians like @mpkotabelud accountable for the deeply thoughtless & lazy policy attitudes.”
Rahman responded by saying: “Interesting tweet. What did I say that ruffled your feather?”
She then referenced a statement Rahman made, questioning his choice of the word “communist” to describe how the government should not dictate whether private developers chose to build luxury or affordable housing in their projects.
Upon saying that he was open to ideas on how to solve the problem, Yesudas suggested, amongst others, prioritising the elderly and building 100,000 affordable houses for them by 2020. Another Twitter user, @bumno, also jumped into the conversation and suggested “a mass assembly line of prefab components for low cost homes”.
The Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government minister replied: “70% of low cost under my ministry is already doing IBS. Prefab is something I have been asking for in private sector.”
He also queried where she thought the budget would come from to finance her suggestion of 100,000 homes for the elderly by 2020, to which she replied: “Uh, are you seriously going to make me say 1MDB.”
Azira Aziz, Senior Research Officer with the Selangor State Legislative Assembly, also jumped into the fray and called for a “total ban on expensive housing” as there were 78 per cent unsold properties in that segment, according to a recent news report.
Rahman responded that she should read the report to clarify that it was Bumiputera lots in only selected states that contributed to the high percentage of unsold units.
The hour-long exchange also saw Michelle calling him a “coward” for avoiding her questions on policy matters, and Azira using the term “daun keladi” to describe the minister.
Related story: Perak Sultan raps developers for unaffordable housing