Tough issue hits home in Penang?

Affordable housing in Penang has become the Achilles Heel of the DAP-led government and the Prime Minister will be aiming his arrow for that particular spot when he arrives in Penang Dec 8, 2012.

PENANG people are known to get worked up over unusual things. A well-known NGO in Penang has been going about hugging some trees that have to make way for Penang’s burgeoning traffic.

It was quite sweet to see S.M. Mohamed Idris, the president of the Consumers Association of Penang, with his arms wrapped around a tree trunk.

But the hottest issue for most Penang folk today is affordable housing. It is not a new issue. It has been there since Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon was the Chief Minister and it was probably one of the reasons that pushed Penang voters to change the government.

The temperature is rising because the shortage of affordable housing remains a major headache for Pen­ang people.

Affordable housing has become the Achilles Heel of the DAP-led government in the state.

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s visit to Penang today is seen as an arrow aimed at this Achilles Heel.

The Prime Minister’s visit is preceded by Perumahan Rakyat 1Malaysia (PR1MA), announcing that some 80,000 affordable homes are to be built in 50 cities and towns over the next three years. The fact that Najib is launching the initiative in Penang is a sign that his coalition wants to respond to the needs of the Penang people and that he has not given up on winning their support. Penangites will get the first shot at registering for the units.

It looks like affordable housing is set to become a big election issue in Penang. Pakatan Rakyat politicians claimed they have built thousands of low-cost houses while their Barisan Nasional opponents think the claims are more fictitious than real.

“I’m a Penangite and in the last four years, I have not come across any state low-cost housing scheme. Honestly, if there are any, I would know because I keep a lookout for such things and I am sure it would have appeared in the media. But it is only talked about at DAP ceramah and everyone has a different figure,” said Penang Gerakan vice-chairman Wong Mun Hoe.

The figures bandied about by various personalities in the state government have ranged from 300 units of low-cost houses to an astonishing 14,702 units built since 2008.

According to Mun Hoe, the 300 units mentioned was probably right because the project in the Bayan Lepas area had begun under the Barisan Nasional administration and was completed two years ago.

But Mun Hoe is quite mystified about claims that more than 14,000 of affordable housing have been built in the state.

The figure came from state Housing, Urban and Town Planning Committee chairman Wong Hon Wai who cited the issuance of 14,702 CFs or certificates of fitness for low-cost and low medium-cost houses since 2008 as proof that the state had provided ample affordable housing.

Hon Wai’s remarks were the latest addition to what has been a trail of confusing statements about the state government’s record on low-cost housing. Different people from the state government have come up with different figures.

It all began when the Auditor-General’s Report of 2011 stated that the Penang Government had not built a single low-cost house from 2008 to 2010.

The report also praised the state for its good financial situation which sort of put the state government in a fix because they could not deny the reprimand while accepting the pat on the back.

But the Auditor-General’s Report started a flurry of reactions from the Penang Government and that was when all sorts of figures started rolling out.

Shortly after that report, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said that a total 11,000 low-cost homes had been built in the state.

His political secretary Zairil Khir Johari followed up with a different but equally impressive figure.

The Barisan side were looking at each other in askance.

These people used to be the government and they know what is involved in building low-cost houses.

The figures thrown out were simply too incredible.

Earlier this week, MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek asked where all these thousands of state low-cost houses were located.

Like many others, he is beginning to think it is all hot air.

The figures are getting bigger but the houses seem to be invisible.

“If all these houses had really been built, do you think we would be here asking questions?” Mun Hoe asked.

It was against this backdrop that the Taman Manggis issue, where land meant for low-cost housing was sold to a company to build a hotel and private hospital, became so controversial. Taman Manggis is a tiny plot of land and using it for another purpose would not have raised eyebrows if the state had been doing its part in providing low-cost homes.

“First, they have not been building low-cost houses. Then, they sell land meant for the poor to the private sector.

“After we made noise, they said land had been set aside in Jalan S.P. Chelliah for low-cost housing. It sounded like a knee-jerk reaction,” said Wong.

There have also been announcements that thousands of units of affordable housing will be built in Batu Kawan on the Seberang Prai side.

But that had also raised questions about whether all the rich folk will be living on the island while the poor end up on the mainland.

The Penang Government has been put on the defensive over the issue of affordable housing and PR1MA’s big launch today will only add to the pressure.

ANALYSIS
By JOCELINE TAN

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Citigroup to sack more than 11,000 jobs

NEW YORK — Citigroup's move to sack more than 11,000 workers may foreshadow bigger cuts as its newly installed chief executive shakes up the lumbering Wall Street behemoth.

The New York bank's restructuring — coupled with a $1-billion write-down in the fourth quarter — came as Citi, like other financial giants, suffers through a hangover from the housing meltdown and struggles to adjust to the resulting regulations.

 "This is simply just the beginning," said Todd Hagerman, an analyst at Sterne Agee. Restructuring on Wall Street, as firms prune non-core businesses, is "going to be fairly painful over the next several years."

A $1-billion charge might otherwise throw cold water on a company's stock. But investors clearly approved of Citi's restructuring, which came sooner than analysts expected — only seven weeks into Michael Corbat's tenure as CEO. Citi stock jumped $2.17, or 6.3%, closing Wednesday at $36.46.

Corbat took Citi's helm after Vikram Pandit's abrupt departure from the CEO suite in October, following a long-simmering dispute with the bank's board of directors. Analysts saw Citi's layoffs as a much-needed first step, though not enough to satisfy restive investors.

"We view this move as an initial 'tremor,' and that an 'earthquake' or more radical restructuring is needed before the April 16th annual meeting to satisfy activists," Mike Mayo, a banking analyst with CLSA, wrote in a note. "While clearly a portion of these moves must have already been in the works, the moves today create a tone that the new CEO will not take half-measures."

Big Wall Street banks have been shrinking their payrolls to maintain profits in the wake of the financial crisis and sweeping new regulations aimed at reducing risk.

As of Sept. 30, Bank of America's head count had fallen 6% from the previous year to 272,600, regulatory filings show. Morgan Stanley's payroll was down 7% to 57,726, and Goldman Sachs' payroll had fallen 5% to 32,600 over the same period.

Citi's more than 11,000 job cuts account for 4% of its global workforce of 261,000.

About 6,200 of the layoffs will come from Citi's consumer banking operations in the U.S. and around the world as the company focuses on 150 cities with the "highest growth potential," the bank said. Other cuts include 1,900 jobs in its group serving institutional clients.

The cuts include closures of 44 U.S. consumer banking branches.

Four California branches will close Dec. 14. Affected customers have been notified of the closures in North Hollywood, Santa Rosa, Fresno and at John Wayne Airport, a spokeswoman said. FDIC records show 382 of Citibank's 1,060 U.S. offices are in California, the most of any state.

"These actions are logical next steps in Citi's transformation," Corbat said in a statement. "While we are committed to — and our strategy continues to leverage — our unparalleled global network and footprint, we have identified areas and products where our scale does not provide for meaningful returns."

In addition to the U.S. branches, Citigroup will close 14 in Brazil, seven in Hong Kong, 15 in South Korea and four in Hungary. The company also said it expected to "sell or significantly scale back" its consumer banking operations in Pakistan, Paraguay, Romania, Turkey and Uruguay.

Citi said the cuts would save $900 million in 2013 and produce $1.1 billion in annual savings in 2014 and beyond.

Although the bank said it would book a $1-billion pre-tax charge in the fourth quarter, along with $100 million in related charges in the first half of 2013, Citi said the restructuring would reduce annual revenue by less than $300 million.

"That just tells you how poorly this company has been under-performing in a number of different areas over the last several years," Hagerman said. - AP/LA Times/Reuters/USA Today

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Smartphone users exposed to threats from cyber hackers

KUALA LUMPUR: About seven million smartphone users nationwide are exposed to threats from cyber hackers who make use of their gadgets to steal their money.

Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Syed Ismail Syed Azizan said lack of awareness on the risks of smartphone security made users easy victims.

“The modus operandi is to send short messaging service known as Trojans to users who unknowingly will be charged when replying to the SMS,” he said. “Consumers only realise this when they are slapped with high phone bills although they did not use the service.”

The scam was detected via applications such as “Type-On” which, when downloaded, would cause smartphone users to bear the cost although they had uninstalled the application.

Lookout Mobile Security was quoted by AFP as saying that worldwide, users lost millions of dollars last year via malware and toll fraud that attacked smartphone users for accessing applications from unofficial sources rather than trusted ones such as Apple or Google online shops.

Syed Ismail said police statistics recorded from January to September this year showed that losses incurred via SMS or phone calls totalled RM21.8mil.

The hackers target users of Internet banking or phone banking by hacking and abusing the network, including the online purchases of goods.

Online purchases recorded the highest losses of RM14.5mil (1,298 cases) followed by SMS or phone call with RM3.4mil (412 cases), hacking (RM3.3mil via 24 cases) and Internet banking and phone banking with RM590,000 (74 cases). - Bernama