Funds row: ‘MIC must bite the bullet’

A MIC central working committee member admits that there is a screw-up in disbursing funds meant for Tamil schools.

PETALING JAYA: A MIC leader has urged his party to be more transparent concerning the RM100 million allocated for Tamil schools.

“The time has come for us to admit that we have made a boo-boo on the logistics. There is no use in beating around the bush. We have to learn to bite the bullet,” said S Vell Paari.

The MIC central working committee member said this in response to MIC secretary-general S Murugesan who defended party chief G Palanivel against allegations that the party squandered the money.

On Dec 17, SS2 Tengah MIC branch chairman S Padnmanagan accused Palanivel of depriving 145 partially-aided Tamil schools of allocations this year even though the Cabinet had approved RM100 million for the upgrading works of 369 partially-aided Tamil schools.

Vell Paari, who is also MIC communication chief, said the Cabinet had initially given the green light to Koperasi Suria to handle the money but backtracked later.

“The money has always been with the Education Ministry, not us,” he said.

He added that he was not aware of the people involved in handling the logistics of the funds but revealed that an initial study showed there was a shortage.

“Cutting the number of recipient schools is not right. They should have informed the government to obtain more funds and fix the problem,” he said.

To avoid controversies such as the current one, he suggested the formation of a separate independent committee to ensure that the funds were given out properly.

“The committee should be made up of professionals from the Indian community who are corporate leaders, members of the civil society and MIC representatives,” he explained.

Entrepreneurs fund

On the issue of RM180 million for Indian entrepreneurs, Vell Paari said the criteria to obtain the funds should be relaxed.

“The criteria are the same as bank loan applications. In this case why would an entrepreneur need to see MIC?” said Vell Paari in response to calls from Malaysian Indian Business Association (Miba) president P Sivakumar who wanted MIC to reveal the exact figures.

On Wednesday, Sivakumar said: “Out of the RM180 million that was allocated, only RM30 million is justifiable through Tekun. Perhaps another RM20 million can be justified through the Small and Medium Enterprise Corporation Malaysia (SME). But what about the other RM130 million?”

Sivakumar told FMT that RM130 million was dispersed to financial institutions to be given out as business related loans via the Islamic concept and it is a hassle for Indians to apply for loans due to the non-flexible requirement.

In response to Sivakumar’s contention, Special Secretariat for Empowerment of Indian Entrepreneurs (SEED) director AT Kumararajah revealed that RM24.37 million had been given out so far to 643 applicants.

Kumararajah pointed out that SEED was an initiative by the Prime Minister’s Department and not MIC to assist in giving out the RM180 million allocated for the Indian community.

Kumararajah also claimed that the lack of discipline and responsibility among applicants such as delays in producing documents for loans as reasons for their failure in obtaining the funds.

SEED is a MIC initiative

Responding to Kumararajah’s statement, Vell Paari refuted claims that SEED was an initiative by the Prime Minister’s Department.

“If MIC is not involved, the prime minister would not need MIC anymore. If MIC is not involved, what is Kumararajah doing there?

“SEED is a MIC initiative. Palanivel is there because it was set up under the Cabinet committee for Indian affairs,” said Vell Paari who explained that the initiative was his brainchild from a blueprint for the Indian community covering various aspects.

“SEED was 0.01% of a blueprint that I presented during a CWC meeting in December 2010. The blueprint is like the setting for an Indian Affairs Department,” he said, adding that the SEED idea was later presented to the Cabinet committee on Indian affairs.

On Kumararajah’s argument that the applicants did not provide proper documentation, Vell Paari said: “If the applicants were well organised they wouldn’t come to us.”

Elaborating further, he said that SEED should reach out to Indians the way the MyDaftar campaign was conducted.

He added that one of the reasons for My Daftar’s success was because the staff assist in every aspect so that the people could obtain their documentation.

The MyDaftar programme is meant for people to obtain birth certificate and identification cards.