SMJ friendly homes: Federal govt urged to speed up allocation

5 August 2022

By Wartawan Nabalu News

KUALA LUMPUR: Tawau MP Datuk Christina Liew has urged the Federal Government to speedily channel a special allocation to the Sabah State Government for the construction of Sabah Maju Jaya (SMJ) - friendly homes that the Sabah Government will build in all the 73 constituencies in the state.

She said she had posed a question about the proposed 1,500 homes during the State Legislative Assembly sitting last month and was told that the State Government was still awaiting the allocation from the Federal Government for the purpose.

On April 20 this year, Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor announced that a special grant of RM125.6 million for Sabah will be used to build 1,500 SMJ-friendly homes, which will be evenly distributed apportioned in all the 73 state constituencies.

"We hope these houses will be duly completed within the 12th Malaysia Plan (2021-2025). Sabah deserves special Federal attention as the state, once the richest in Malaysia, has been relegated to being the poorest now.

"This dismal situation has been highlighted in the Dewan Rakyat, not once but several times since last year. Don't just keep harping on the high poverty rate in Sabah without taking affirmative action.

"Do something about it as we want to see concrete results, and not merely pay lip service at the end of the day," Liew said, on the sidelines on the last day of the Second Meeting of the Fifth Term of the 14th Parliament here on Thursday.

In March this year, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Economy), Dato' Sri Mustapa Mohamed admitted that Sabah is lagging behind with a poverty rate of 19.5pc compared to the national average of 5.6pc while speaking in the Dewan Rakyat.