Daim-Not So Quiet These Days

Wah, this man has really got many things to say these days.

When he was walking in the corridors of power, he was known as Quiet Daim; saying things as briefly as possible, fearful of being misquoted.

When asked about the stock market then, he said ‘buy’ and there was a flurry of frenzy buying. When the market could not sustained and fell, he replied he was being misquoted. What he actually said and meant was ‘Bye-bye’ to the market.

After speculating on the odds for the BN government to win more seats as well as to regain its two-third majority in Parliament and some state governments in the forthcoming General elections, he has popped up again to talk about mundane topics such as houses, jobs, schools, inflation and prices of goods.

On housing, he says the prices of residential properties in Malaysia are too high, and far beyond the people's ability to afford them, urging the government to expedite control measures and stop irresponsible, greedy developers.

He pointed out that the comments of real estate industry players that the country’s property prices were lower than some neighbouring countries were misleading.

On claims by developers and real estate agents that there was no property bubble in Malaysia and prices here were lower than in countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong, Daim said, "of course, they are earning more than us".

He said Singaporeans on average, were earning higher than the average Malaysians, and Hong Kong had limited land whereas land is plentiful in Malaysia.

On the steep hike in property prices in the last two years, he said "they are going up like crazy".

He said the government's relaxation on the real property gain tax in the past and the central bank's relaxation on lending policies and guidelines on housing loans had given rise to too much speculative activities in the industry.

He said the high-end properties were beyond the reach of Malaysians.

Even foreign buyers were being put off, he said, adding that only the mid-range properties were still doing well.

He advised the government to be clear that the people wanted affordable housing which can increase in value over the years.

The people also wanted a job, with a pay that was able to meet their needs, he said.

Next come good schools and reasonable prices of goods, he added.

"If the government takes care of the people's needs, they would not consider changing the government," he said.

Daim also agreed with the implementation of the minimum wage policy but said that productivity must be raised in tandem. At the same time, the government must control inflation, he added.

Pointing out that a person who earns RM3,000 a month will find it hard to survive in Kuala Lumpur nowadays, he felt that the minimum wage should be set at RM1,200 a month.

My Comments:

There are many people earning below this amount and they are hard-pressed to survive in KL, JB and in Selangor. Rents are high, food is expensive and tolls can really be a nuisance on the pocket-book.

Can the government really come up with some ad-hoc and long-term solutions?

For pensioners and the retirees, are there going to be some Malaysian bonds and sukuk funds for subscription soon as the banks are still fleecing them right now with the low interest regime?