Sarawak minister lambasts Tourism Ministry over new MM2H policy
SANTUBONG, June 7 — Sarawak Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah today said that the state government will sort out the latest policy on the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme with the federal government.
He said the federal Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (Motac) in a circular issued last month had decided to scrap permits to all agencies in Sarawak and Sabah operating the MM2H programme with immediate effect.
“This policy has crippled the Sarawak and Sabah MM2H programme,” Karim told reporters after inspecting the Sarawak Cultural Village (SCV), the venue of the coming Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF).
He said Motac should not have imposed the policy on Sarawak and Sabah as these two states have different conditions than those in peninsular Malaysia.
“In Sarawak, for example, every applicant for the Sarawak-MM2H programme is only required to place RM150,000 as a fixed deposit in the bank, while in peninsular Malaysia, it is RM1 million,” he said.
“That is why the applications for Sarawak-MM2H programme have jumped by over 90 per cent while in the peninsula, it has declined by 90 per cent, and it is their mistake, not ours,” he added.
He said if the reason for the poor response to the MM2H programme in the peninsula for not extending or giving permits to agencies operating the programme or Motac is still thinking of coming out with a new policy, then it should not be applicable to Sarawak and Sabah.
Karim criticised his federal counterpart Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing for not discussing the matter with the two Borneo states.
“It is not just Motac that has all the power, talking about this and that, expecting us to follow.
“I am very disappointed with Motac. It is shameful since the minister is from Sarawak,” he said.
Karim reminded Tiong that both Sarawak and Sabah have rights as far as tourism is concerned.
He said that he will continue to chair meetings to approve applications for the Sarawak-MM2H programme as he usually does every month.
“We will not rock the boat, but we expect the federal government, through Motac, to be considerate about what are the policies that Sarawak has been implementing,” he said, adding that all the policies on Sarawak-MM2H programme have been approved by the state Cabinet.
“Here comes the federal minister who pushes things away, thinking that he is bigger,” Karim said.
