Mara to look into study loan withdrawal

Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) has given its assurance that the issue of the sudden withdrawal of a study loan given to a PKR leader's son will be resolved soon.

Mara education deputy director Abd Rahim Abd Ghani was responding to Batu Pahat PKR chief Syed Hamid Ali's claim that Mara had cancelled the overseas study loan offer made to his son Akmal Hakim, 17.

Syed Hamid told Malaysiakiniyesterday that this was because he (Syed Hamid) was registered as an ‘Arab' at birth.

"Mara will in the near future solve this problem. All actions (taken) should have basis and must be justified," Abd Rahim said when met at the Mara headquarters in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

However, he refused to say how soon the matter would be resolved, or reveal the grounds for the scholarship withdrawal.

Syed Hamid was registered as an Arab at birth by a neighbour, who helped his parents with the registration of his birth some 70 years ago.

The neighbour, Syed Hamid said, had assumed that he was of Arab origin because of the family's first name was ‘Syed'.

"I am 69 years old and that was before Merdeka. Our neighbour registered my birth so he must have assumed that since my name is Syed, I am an Arab," he said.

"I registered my son's birth myself and in his birth certificate, it states that his father is Malay."

Cancellation letter 

Akmal Hakim was to get a loan to take up a business degree at an Ivy League university or any equivalent American university.

According to Syed Hamid, Mara had asked his son to register at Inti International University in Nilai, Negri Sembilan, for the preparatory course on June 28.

However, on June 23 - five days before Akmal was to enrol for the preparatory course - he received a letter, via courier, cancelling the study loan.

Syed Hamid has posted portions of the letter on his Facebook page, which states that it is compulsory for at least one of the parents of Mara study loan recipients to be a Malay or bumiputera.

Akmal Hakim's mother is Chinese Malaysian.

"As such, the offer made to you for (the overseas study) programme is cancelled as you do not meet the requirement," the letter to Akmal Hakim states.