Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's 'farewell' budget proposals presented last Friday were praised by various groups and organisations as a genuine people's budget. The opposition front quickly labelled it as a 'sweetener' for the upcoming general election.

There were substantial allocations and incentives for women and the disabled. These include RM105 million for women's development programmes; RM100 million in loans for single mothers under the microcredit scheme; and a 20 percent discount for single mothers purchasing low-cost homes built by Syarikat Perumahan Nasional Bhd.

Disabled persons are to be allocated one percent of jobs in the public sector, while RM10 million is allocated for those suffering from chronic diseases. Disabled workers earning less than RM750 will get an allowance of RM200.

Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) fully supports these proposals, but has issues with the convenient way in which 'welfaristic' moves have been introduced, without harming the capitalistic nature of Barisan Nasional.

Women, children, the elderly and disabled are regarded as weaker sections of society. Highlighting them as such has a great influence on the rakyat and convinces them that the BN government is a 'caring government'.

'Pigeon-hole dwellings'

The government proudly claims that it will take over the building of medium- and low-cost houses via Syarikat Perumahan Negara Bhd. A total of 404.6 hectares have been earmarked on land belonging to the state-owned RRIM, to build 10,000 low-cost homes.

However, mere planning is not enough. Actual achievement of such targets is crucial, but as shown in the table (right), this seldom happens.

The budget also puts forward plans to build 62,672 more low-cost flats under the Projek Perumahan Rakyat (PPR).

Despite the fact that social activists have highlighted problems involving high-rise housing and implications on the social life of residents, such 'pigeon-hole dwellings' are still being provided for the poor .

Efforts should be made to provide the people with habitable housing as spelt out in the various United Nations conventions.

The move to house squatters in 'pigeon holes' merely sweeps the dirt under the carpet. Many developed countries have realised the ill effects of such housing and provided habitable landed properties instead.

Under Budget 2004, state governments are required to exempt premium payments for land used to build low-cost homes.

This should be clearly reflected in the prices of houses and not end up as savings for private developers. Currently low-cost house prices are directly related to the price of land.

In almost all housing projects in urban and suburban areas, lower-end houses are priced within the RM42,000 bracket, which is out reach of a large section of the low-income group.

As detailed in a study by Universiti Sains Malaysia in1999, 25.5 percent of the population can comfortably purchase houses priced between RM25,000 to RM40,000 while 35 percent can only afford houses costing RM25,000 and below.

Minimum wages

Although the nation has a workforce of nine million, the budget proposals only address a small section of them - the 100,000 in the public sector.

Their joy of receiving a half-month bonus must not fall like a shadow to deepen the hardship of the majority of the working population.

Instead of improving the wages of our workers, the government intensively recruits foreign workers from Vietnam and Sri Lanka. These workers are employed in low-paying sectors shunned by locals.

The government, after 46 years of independence, still fails in these aspects:

- To enact a Minimum Wages Act to guarantee workers a decent living

- To create a security fund for retrenched workers

The BN government refuses to enact a Minimum Wages Act in order to encourage foreign capital investments. And to meet this capitalist target, the interests of workers - both locals or foreigners - are sacrificed.

Impartialty in education

The budget boasts of making the lion's share of allocations to education, with a a total of RM20.2 billion. While this is welcome, it needs to be scrutinised to ensure that it is money well spent.

Various ethnic-oriented political parties are competing to build their own universities, and yet priority is being given to tertiary education .

Primary education is still haunted by a system of double standards, known as fully-aided schools and partially-aided schools. Why didn't the budget address this basic problem?

Isn't it the government's responsibility to provide education, especially primary education to all without partiality?

Healthcare woes

The government's move to encourage the setting-up of private commercial wings in government hospitals to enable doctors to get better remuneration is almost certain to affect the quality of medical service.

Doctors will be tempted to focus their services in the private consultancy wing more than attending to the public wards and clinics.

Even now, many government hospitals are drained of experienced, trained doctors and medical staff, who frequently opt for early retirement to join the private sector.

There is also a severe shortage of local nurses, hence requiring the services of nurses from India and Sri Lanka among other countries.

In view of frequent disease outbreaks, the government is excited about the establishment of a Centre for Disease Control. A total of RM20 million is allocated for this. Why aren't existing facilities like the Institute for Medical Research incapable of performing such tasks?

Before conveniently spending taxpayers' money on a new project, the government is duty-bound to ensure effective and efficient running of existing facilities.

Although heralded as one of the best by far, Budget 2004 merely scratches the surface of issues.

The daily lives of ordinary Malaysians will see little improvement as they continue to receive low wages, are forced to work 16 hours a day to make ends meet, live in cramped 'ghettos', pay toll charges, and receive low dividends for Employees Provident Fund contributions.

The list goes on Keranamu Malaysia.

A SIVARAJAN is an activist fighting to improve housing rights for workers. He is also the pro-tem treasurer of Parti Sosialis Malaysia.