The Parliament briefing session (taklimat) to discuss the Pelan Tindakan Masyarakat India (PTMI) and the MITRA scandal with the National Unity Minister Datuk Halimah Mohamed Sadique, continued today, after the first meeting was held last Thursday.
The MITRA scandal should not be taken lightly. It is one of the most despicable actions of fraud and theft when you steal from the poor. This money that was stolen was intended for the poor.
We had raised several issues to the secretary-general of the National Unity Ministry Datuk Wan Suraya Wan Mohd Radzi. We also asked for the list of the recipients of the monies in 2021 but that request was declined with the reason that it is under investigation by MACC. While we agree it is under investigation, there should be no need to bar the information to us. There is no logic to this. If the investigation takes the next 20 years to complete, will the recipients never be disclosed?
This behaviour is in stark contrast to when PH was in government as all recipients’ details were available online. Now the government says that 2022’s recipients will be listed online.
The data for 2021 is very important because it has been rumoured that many MIC individuals and leaders had stolen the money from MITRA that was allocated for the B40 poor. Once all for all to settle this matter, these names must be divulged.
The second matter is that over the years, due to mismanagement of MITRA funds, a lot of money was returned to the government because the money was not allocated out within the year it was provided for. It has been said that the amount is close to RM400 million, over the years, we want to verify this and so the Ministry must provide details to this request.
The whole reason why MITRA was set up was for the Indian community to be aided by this money so why is the money being returned to the government? I have asked the Secretary General to answer this as well.
It is no fair that because the government was incompetent and did not have short term and long term plans on how to overcome the socio-economic issues of the Indians that these funds were returned to the government.
I therefore ask the government to return back all the money to the agency to be distributed to the poor Indians in Malaysia. This can easily be done if the MOF and cabinet approve the request.
I also want to know if this matter was brought up in the cabinet, were there any ministers who objected to it or was it never even brought up at all?
The government must also make the process easier and more efficient. Creating an easy to use platform for the poor to receive the money would be a better way. This also must be done under the watchful eye of a monitoring and governance group so that no more wastage and theft happens with this allocated money.