By Teo Nie Ching, Kulai MP

In its manifesto for GE13, BN promised to build 500,000 affordable homes under the Perumahan Rakyat 1Malaysia (PR1MA) programme in the coming 5 years. A year after 505, a parliamentary written reply from Dr Shahidan Bin Kassim revealed that only 3 projects total 3,898 units are currently under construction.

According to Shahidan, these 3 projects are located in Kuala Lumpur (2,074 units), Kedah (1,349 units) and Johor (475 units) respectively.

While the planning, development and construction of housing projects indeed isn’t something that can be done overnight, but the progress of PR1MA houses is rather disappointing and I wonder if the promise to build 500,000 PR1MA houses in 5 years can really be kept.

Last Saturday, Najib Abdul Razak announced 5,000 PR1MA housing units to be built in Teluk Intan. While I am happy for the people of Teluk Intan, I want to remind Najib that Teluk Intan is not the only place where affordable houses are urgently needed. If BN’s victory in Teluk Intan brings 5,000 unit of affordable houses to the people there, then in Johor, where BN has won 21 out of 26 parliamentary seats during GE13, at least 100,000 unit of PR1MA houses should be built for the people of Johor.

However, as of now, only 475 units of PR1MA houses are being constructed in Johor, despite the fact that Johor has been known as the fix-deposit state for BN. It looks like Johoreans’ strong support towards BN have been taken for granted.

Will Najib build 100,000 units of PR1MA houses in Johor based on his promise in Teluk Intan by-election to prove that the Barisan Nasional cherish each and every of their supporters?