Sunday, March 10, 2013

PM is living in another Malaysia - RM100,000 houses are affordable houses for workers?

SIME DARBY, a GLC[Government Linked Company] is building ' affordable houses for its current and former workers. Sime Darby wanted to charge RM120,000 and the Prime Minister announced that the price will be lowered to RM100,000.

The minimum wage is RM900-00, and after deductions for Employees Provident Fund and Social Security, it will be lesser - and this means that it will take these workers utilizing all their wages about 10 years or more to pay for these houses, if they were not paying any interest for their housing loans. [Remember that there were about 34% of Malaysian workers were earning RM700 and less in 2009 before the implementation of the Minimum Wage]

Affordable Houses - certainly these are not affordable houses for workers in Malaysia - maybe only for the high-income workers. The workers for whom Sime Darby is building these 'affordable houses' is most likely plantation workers or former plantation workers - surely they would not be able to afford such homes UNLESS if Sime Darby is giving them FREE Houses - which would be JUST considering the contributions of these workers to the company, which also included willingness to receive low wages and suffer hardships that come with low pay whilst the company prospered...

The comments are based on the report below....

Put employees’ welfare first, PM tells GLCs


KLANG: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak yesterday urged government-linked companies (GLCs) and their private counterparts to put the welfare of their employees before profit.

"When the welfare of an employee is looked after, he would be loyal and be productive to his company.

"The contribution of employees to the growth of any company should not be taken lightly," he said before launching plantation giant Sime Darby's affordable houses for its current and former workers in Pulau Carey here yesterday.

He lauded Sime Darby's initiative in putting the welfare of its workers before profit.

Earlier, Sime Darby chairman Tan Sri Samsudin Osman announced that the houses, in the basic built, will cost RM120,000 each.


Najib later announced that the price will instead be only RM100,000, as he had urged Sime Darby to lower it to recognise the contributions of its workers.

The prime minister's announcement was met with a huge round of applause from the crowds.

According to Najib, a country's wealth should be distributed evenly.

"We do not want all the riches to be enjoyed by only one group - like in the (United States of) America, where one per cent of Americans control 40 per cent of the country's wealth," said Najib.

Such unbalanced distribution of wealth, he added, will not affect a country socially but its competitiveness in the long run.

Najib said political stability and social security is important to ensure prosperity.

"As we speak, our security forces are defending us from enemies in Lahad Datu, Sabah.

"We should all support our security forces and thank them. Not only them, but the government that affords the security as well," he said.- Business Times, 9/3/2013,
Put employees’ welfare first, PM tells GLCs

1 comment:

charleskwi said...

najib manauDon't forget it should be GE time therefore Najib and all his warlords and lackeys will promise anything. I mean anything just for he votes, every promise he makes is meant to be broken, period.
Also remember when the heart overflows the mouth speaks, $100,000- houses are indeed affordable for workers by his own standard.
Or may be he never intends to have the GE held at all, he just wants to hold on to the glamour of being the P.M. of Malaysia, as predicted since he was given the premiership.
My heart bleeds for him and the first lady but watch out a rabbit will be pulled out of the hat by the illusionist !