Wan Saiful said this could include cash transfers to specific groups of the population, and empower activists who help flat dwellers such as civil societies.
His comments come in the wake of the recent report by Unicef, which found that urban poverty in Kuala Lumpur had impaired children’s education opportunities, while making them vulnerable to malnourishment, as well as giving rise to health problems such as obesity.
Wan Saiful said the Unicef report pointed to deeper underlying issues in PPR flats, adding that it showed the gap between them and “Umno ministers who are too busy enjoying their prosperous lives”.
“People in PPR flats have been struggling for a very long time – the Unicef report highlights the fact that the people who suffer the most when policies fail are the children,” he said.
Wan Saiful, who recently quit his think tank Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS), said the government should listen to the many NGOs which had done good work in PPR flats.
“When I was with IDEAS, I learnt from our own visits as well as from my NGO colleagues about the struggles faced by residents in PPR flats.”
“Besides nutritional deficiencies, residents also face various safety hazards and sanitation issues. Ambulances and fire trucks cannot get through to the flats, building maintenance is poor and residents do not have access to a steady supply in electricity and clean water – things that many Umno leaders have never experienced. They are detached from daily challenges that the common people face.”
Yesterday, Wan Saiful hit out at government backbencher Bung Moktar Radin, for suggesting that cases of obesity in Malaysia showed people were prosperous and well-fed.
“Bung Moktar needs to spend some time walking in the shoes of the rakyat instead of shooting off his mouth and making a mockery of Parliament,” he had said.
Wan Saiful today questioned the government’s allocation of RM300 million last year to improve conditions at PPR flats.
“But we don’t know what happened from that money. These problems are endemic and a reflection of Umno’s lack of focus on the issues that matter to common people. Umno has failed to listen to the needs of the people,” he added.