‘Be transparent or discreet at times’

Kadir hints to ministers on how to deal with matters depending on situation

PETALING JAYA: The manner in which the peer-to-peer (P2P) funding was made public exposes the government to allegations of cronyism and nepotism, says blogger Datuk Kadir Jasin.

Kadir said that while the budget was delivered last Friday, the parties believed to have submitted the proposal revealed the content to the public on the Sunday prior to that.

“Yes, the Finance Minister can announce this as a policy.

“But the right way to go about doing this is to request for proposals from as many parties as possible so that the government has many options to choose from,” said Kadir in his personal capacity as a blogger yesterday.

Kadir, who is the Prime Minister’s media adviser as well as a Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia supreme council member, said that while they wanted the project to succeed, this is the first-ever such financing scheme in the world and people could not be stopped from wondering and asking questions about it.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the scheme, the first of its kind in the world, offered firsttime home buyers the chance to pay only 20% to own a house with the remaining 80% borne by investors via the P2P financing framework.

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng when tabling the Budget 2019, said the P2P financing framework which would be regulated by the Securities Commission, would go “live” in the first quarter of next year for firsttime home buyers.

Kadir however said the real issue about housing was affordability as prices had skyrocketed while incomes had not.

“Profiteering makes the situation worse,” he said, adding he would leave it to the clever people at Bank Negara and the Economic Planning Unit to figure it out.

He said technology helped and there would be better and cheaper ways of mass-producing affordable homes.

“I understand that at least one large government-linked property developer is experimenting with the idea of manufactured houses and apartments,” he said.

On another matter, Kadir said a former minister had pointed out to him that Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry Ong Kian Ming had gone on television to discuss the budget before it was presented.

Kadir said the “angry” former minister had argued that the budget was a highly confidential document as it involved taxes and critical policies.

“What this former minister is driving at is that confidentiality is important when planning and drafting the budget, and that the civil servants must be given due respect and recognition,” he said.