“From the previous programs such as Prima and SPNB till the recent Affordable Housing Scheme (RMM), the government’s policies to help the people who cannot afford to buy their own house seem to be eloquent. However, the low-income groups are faced with the main difficulty is that it is difficult to obtain bank loans. Even if the application is approved, the loan T&C is strict.”
According to her understanding, general banks do not like to lend to low-income earners. This trend has existed since a long time ago, and today it has evolved into a disguised "discrimination" culture in the financial industry. As a result, many young people often have no financial sources to apply loan when buying a house or starting a business.
Along the way, the affordable housing launched by the government has not benefited the majority of B40 and M40 groups. Only those civil servants who can apply for government loans are eligible to buy. As for low-income people in the private sectors, almost all of their applications are rejected by banks.
"The government keeps saying that it wants to help low-income people to buy houses, so as to achieve the goal of home ownership. However, the Bank Negara has not eased the loan terms and conditions. This is ironic. Maybe the so-called help targets are only for civil servants so as to achieve their political agenda.”
Putrajaya senior officials are eager to launch the affordable housing policy, which proves that the proportion of those who don’t own a house in the country is still very high. Do they really know nothing about the fact that low-income groups cannot obtain bank loans? Or avoid certain political factors and choose to turn a blind eye on the issue?
"Many families who can’t afford a house have complained to us that the government has given them hope again and again, but it has ripped apart their dreams again and again because they can't get a loan from the bank. This situation has already affected young people and has caused a negative impact and affected their confidence to fight for a better life."
Tiew said that many questions have arisen in the minds of the people, why are young people in other fields unable to obtain loans except for civil servants, are they not qualified to own a house? Or is the government's plan only focusing on young civil servants, and everyone else is excluded?
She urged the federal government to show enough sincerity to solve the problem of commercial banks not lending, instead of continuously launching so-called assistance programs, such as RM10,000 assistance for first-time buyers and affordable housing, to create one dream after another. Because it doesn't make any sense to young people who want to buy a house.
In addition, Tiew said that since the Parliament has passed the amendment to the constitution to restore the equal status of the three states of Sarawak, the power structure of the original three states must be fully constitutionalized and redistributed and implemented, including the decision-making power of the bank.
At this stage, even the simplest car loan has to be decided by the bank headquarters in Malaysia, not to mention the mortgage and other loans. If Sarawak is on an equal footing, the top bankers in Sarawak should be powerful enough to make their own decisions on loan matters.
She stressed that the federal government must respect the constitutional spirit of MA63 and quickly hand over all the powers that belonged to Sarawak, including the appointment of department heads.
“Sarawakians want more than superficial constitutional powers, we want to get back the powers that we originally belonged to, so that Sarawakians have absolute autonomy to formulate all policies that are in the interests of Sarawakians, and will not be affected by Malaya’s dominion."
Tiew also reminded the federal government to correct its attitude when formulating any national policies and funding, and abide by the constitutional spirit of equal status among the three states, instead of continuing to regard Sarawak as a "colony" affiliated with Malaya!