THE Local Government Development Ministry had already conducted several engagement sessions with Singapore’s Housing Development Board since 2015, in the areas of housing and solid waste management, its minister Nga Kor Ming said.

Nga, in a statement, rebuffed allegations by certain political parties that the engagement sessions were made to fill the weaknesses of Malaysian civil servants, branding it as malicious and false accusations.

“Sharing expertise and exchanging best practices in a particular field is not a new practice and has been conducted many years in our country’s system, especially in getting expert point of view to provide the best policies, plans and programmes to the people.

“Malaysia, through the ministry, has also undertaken similar collaborations with various countries other than Singapore, including Australia and India.

“With Singapore, the engagement started in 2015, continued in 2018 to better understand housing planning and provision in social housing,” he said.

Nga added that the existing housing policy developed was a result of cooperation between the ministry with housing experts in the country, such as Khazanah Research Institute (KRI), Bank Negara Malaysia, CIDB, academics, analysts and real estates.

He was responding to Kedah Menteri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor, who accused the first-time minister of working on a “New Silk Road” agenda to China through the ministry.

In a speech recently, Sanusi race-baited by saying that Nga was trying to subjugate the Malays by bringing back local elections.

In his statement, Nga said it was not wrong for the government to improve existing policy based on best practices, so that a better formulated policy can be implemented based on the Malaysian model.

“The intention to invite experts from foreign countries, including Singapore, in seminar and workshop sessions is to gain knowledge in the field of housing so that Malaysia can move forward and be relevant to current developments,” he added.

In an interview with The Malaysian Insight recently, Nga clarified that there are other matters Pakatan Harapan (PH) needs to prioritise, instead of local government elections.

Speaking to a group of journalists in a special pre-Chinese New Year interview recently, he said economic revival measures top the list of issues the people want prioritised.

Nga said surveys, feedback and collected opinions have shown that local government elections are not what the people want right now.

DAP, a key member of the ruling PH coalition, is of the position that local government representatives must be elected. – January 26, 2023.