PETALING JAYA: Deputy Agriculture and Agro-based Industry minister, Chua Tee Yong, said the Barisan Nasional is doing more to tackle poverty in Penang than the Pakatan-led administration.
Chua criticised Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng for claiming credit for poverty reduction efforts in the state when it was the federal government which is making the most effort.
“Lim should stop misleading the people all the time. The truth is that BN has always been actively trying to resolve poverty in Malaysia through various policies and programmes.
“Lim has become confused after living in Penang and making it a place for the rich, where ‘affordable’ housing costs RM400,000 per unit,” said Chua.
The MCA Young Professional Bureau chief and Labis parliamentarian was responding to Lim’s announcement that Penang will be a hardcore poor free state by the end of this year.
Lim plans to do this by raising the monthly minimum income from RM660 to RM700 under Pakatan’s Social Economic Agenda
Lim said that the initiative will cost about RM20 million a year as the state will ‘top up’ the income of about 2,000 households earning below the poverty line.
“We place more importance on the people’s welfare and we have moved our goal of reaching zero poverty by 2013 to 2015 so we are serious in eradicating poverty,” said Lim last month.
Lim was also quoted as saying that Pakatan Rakyat would be able to eliminate poverty in Malaysia within five years if it is given an opportunity to rule the federal government.
Rebutting Lim, Chua said that the BN government has been looking after people’s welfare via Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M) and school aid for students programmes.
“In Budget 2013, the PM also announced 111 programmes to benefit the poor, like taxi drivers, fishermen and many others, to improve their living standards.
“In addition to these, the federal government has also introduced other one-off plans such as aid for orphans, single-parents, and poor families,” said Chua.
In contrast, Chua said that Penang was the seventh most attractive state for foreign direct investments in 2012 as compared to the top spot it earned in 2011.
“Lim must do more to improve Penang’s gross domestic product growth which plummeted to 1.8% from January to September 2012 from an encouraging 5.7% in 2008,” said Chua.
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