Sun: Hamzah is like a trader who thinks that by raising his price he can raise his revenue.That will only be if as Economics 101 teaches, your demand is inelastic. In simpler terms, the goods you sell (residency in Malaysia) must have no other substitutes. But since Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand are effective substitutes, the demand for your product will be elastic.

In layman's terms, this means if you raise the price of your product, your revenue will fall more than proportionately than your price increase. So a 10 percent price increase, for example, will lead to a more than 10 percent decline in revenue.

Instead of helping Malaysia, Hamzah and his "boys" would have done irreparable damage. Surely someone in his ministry must have done high school economics to help him understand this.

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 21 — The Home Ministry has not justified its review of the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) scheme, said DAP lawmaker Hannah Yeoh.Yeoh said there was no data to show that the participants were “security threats” as Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin asserted in Parliament.

She also said the ministry should not penalise all MM2H participants over its claim that some were involved in crime.

“So, I want the home minister to tell everybody: out of all your applicants, how many of them in the last five years have been involved with crime in Malaysia and any charges made, because these are not secrets and are known to all ministries.

“So, take action on those cases but don’t generalise the entire programme,” she said during a joint press conference with Malaysia My Second Home Consultants Association (MM2HCA) and several MM2H representatives.

Balik Pulau MP Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik, who was also present, suggested that the scheme be transferred back to the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (Motac).

The former deputy tourism minister said Malaysia could not afford to have foreign investors chased away by the new conditions of the scheme.

Malaysia My Second Home Consultants Association (MM2HCA) president Anthony Liew told a press conference today that surveys conducted with TEG media and the Japan Club of Kuala Lumpur (JCKL) found that most MM2H participants do not meet the new RM40,000 offshore income requirement.In a TEG Media survey with 925 respondents (mostly from Western countries), only 21% of them reported being able to meet the minimum offshore income requirement, while 44% would be able to meet the minimum RM1 million fixed deposit requirement.

Only about 2.26% of respondents said they could meet both the new conditions.

Meanwhile, a survey with 799 Japanese retirees said that over 90% of them do not have the minimum RM40,000 in monthly offshore income required.

Another survey involving 686 MM2H pass holders found that 55% of existing participants plan to pull out from the programme if the new terms come into force, with 497 of them saying they would opt to move to Thailand.

Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin has defended the newer, more stringent rules for the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme.He said the new rules, which will only apply to new applicants, were fair and good for the country and the people's future.

He was speaking at a press conference today when asked to respond to Johor's Sultan Ibrahim...

When the revised rates were first announced, the drastic increases were justified on the grounds of “local “concerns” about foreign citizens”. Anyone who has been living here long enough would recognize this to be Malaysiaspeak for a certain community’s opposition to anything involving non-Muslims. Foreigners under MM2H apparently number around 54,000; it would be interesting to find out how many are from the decadent West and how many from havens of purity like Indonesia, Bangladesh, or Saudi Arabia.

54,000 is an alarming number? It is very telling that the locals do not seem too unhappy about the Indonesian millions perching in our country.

The only hike that Hamzah Zainuddin could defend was the yearly visa fees after 25 years going upwards from RM90 to RM500. This may be acceptable. But all the other increases? As usual, others are at fault and KPMG would gladly do anything to regain lost favour.

Hamzah Zainuddin is a dangerous politician. If left unchecked, he might end up worse than Mahathir Mohamad.