Chang: Gifts of plyboards and zinc keep the poor in poverty
Published:Saturday | July 17, 2021 | 12:09 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
Western Bureau
Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang, the member of parliament (MP) for St James North Western, says the practice of distributing plyboards and zinc to the poor by politicians is helping to keep many Jamaicans trapped in poverty.
Chang, who is also deputy prime minister, said that traditionally, social housing in Jamaica was more about MPs having access to funds, which they would use to provide home improvement to many of their constituents by way of building blocks, plyboards, and zinc.
“All along, I thought that kind of programme really reflected the politics of what my prime minister [Andrew Holness] calls the politics of poverty. Because the people are poor they accept anything they get,” said Chang.
Social housing
Chang was speaking at Wednesday’s handover of a three-bedroom house to St James resident, 38-year-old Marva Mason, who benefited from the government’s social housing programme which is designed to help persons below a particular income level to acquire homes.
According to Chang, while residents might be grateful when an MP gives them plyboards, building blocks and zinc to fix a leak on their roof or carry out other repairs on their homes, for the most part, their lives remain unchanged.
“They get a few zinc and plyboards and they feel good about it because [to them] the MP cares. Miss Mason had tried to do something there [pointing to an incomplete building], obviously, she got some [building] blocks from me, but it couldn’t go all the way and the quality of life remains very much the same,” said Chang.
And I think, in many ways, that programme not only reflects the politics of poverty but it shows a level of disrespect for the humble people of the country, because if you are doing something right for poor people, do it right and get them out of the situation they are in,” he argued.
He said that the house gifted to Mason and her four children represents social transformation and a departure from politically created poverty.