Yoursay: Doesn’t Mara’s name stand for ‘public trust’?

YOURSAY | ‘We have 1MDB scandal in the north, and now the Mara scandal in the south.’

Another dodgy building purchase by Mara in Melbourne

Shovelnose: The scandal of the transaction of these two properties was dug up by Australian investigators, but it hardly caused a ripple in Malaysia because our senses have been numbed by other monstrous atrocities being played out till today.

Why? The sum involved is only a needle in the haystack compared to the others. But when public funds are being ripped off, even one sen is too much.

Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) will still get its funds allocated from all taxpayers, although its activities predominantly serve a select group.

There is no call for heads to roll, no shake-up in operations nor a formal audit to unearth if there are more skeletons in the cupboard, which I do not doubt.

Vijay47: Yes, unfortunately, we are getting increasingly jaded. Such activities by the gatekeepers themselves are occurring so blatantly and with such regularity, with no action at all being taken against them, that they are now seen as the norm.

What makes all this looting even worse is that they are carried out not by some junior officer exploiting weaknesses in the system but acts executed by those at the very top of management who roped in others of the old school tie so that the scheme remained within the favoured coterie.

Each passing swindle seems to be for a bigger sum and done with greater crudity, the crooks confident that the greater machine will protect them.

The play will continue as usual, the officers and politicians will make glorious statements supporting the national leadership, speak about pursuing the bumiputera vision and the icing on the cake, they will add a few quotations from the Quran.

From the recent stories that have made the news, it is obvious that these scams are rampant especially in Mara, the very organisation supposedly devoted to uplifting the Malays.

But this is not just a Malay issue, the billions being stolen belong to all Malaysians.

Abasir: The New Economic Policy is a success. It has clearly created a class that is smart enough to be corrupt; a class that preys on those Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor called “slow learners.”

Non-Evader: Mara is one of the many institutions established by the Umno government whose existence cannot be questioned by the public. 

But all human beings, regardless of race, will steal, loot and rape even the poorest and most unfortunate people if given the opportunity to do so with little oversight. That's why this outrageous scandal has occurred.

Anonymous: The plundering shall continue. They have the taxes, petroleum and palm oil revenue to cover up the alleged thievery.

Reality shall set in when God destroys these sources of revenue, or when China invades us over our non-payment of debt.

Bad Head: We have 1MDB scandal in the north, and now the Mara scandal in the south.

The opposition must detail all these scandals, and print leaflets to let all kampung folk know about these corrupt activities in the upcoming election campaign.

Anonymous 2480531500430862: Wow, pay A$41.8 million for a US$2 company in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) by saying it owns Australian property. Then after receiving A$41.8 million, use the money to buy an A$23.5 million building.

So easy to make A$18 million. And so easy to become a millionaire - less than six months’ work, and one can already retire.

Anonymous 2456321485312809: What say you, attorney-general and MACC? Nothing wrong here as well? What say you Treasury secretary-general Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah? No serious fraud here?

The money that Mara has was intended to help poor Malays. The RM60 million definitely went to people who were not poor Malays. The people who allegedly facilitated this alleged fraud should be put away for good.

How Mara lost RM60m in property deal Down Under

Pokok Getah: It looks like Mara has involved itself with another dud in Melbourne, after Dudley House.

If serious losses were made due to incompetence and bad judgement of the management, that would already be highly regrettable.

But if what is reported is true, the newly discovered losses were not due to incompetence, but were a manifestation of dishonesty and greed.

The only bad judgement the miscreants made was thinking that they would not be found out.

The ‘A’ and ‘Ra’ in ‘Mara’ stand for ‘amanah rakyat’ (public trust). Have the top management lived up to the trust placed in them?

Anonymous 1811351504586755: Is this another case of taxpayer money being stolen by corrupt officials and politicians?

Yet they remain free men and continue to ride the gravy train. How much longer can we continue to have multiple scandals of millions, if not billions, of ringgit siphoned off so brazenly?

Kangkung: Why does any Umno-linked corporation need to use an "intricate web of paper transactions and companies incorporated in the British Virgin Islands (BVI)" if not to siphon off millions of the rakyat's money?

The Malaysian Official 1 (MO1) has made it a specialised art to conduct business that is "clouded by a maze of transactions." Mara officials seem to have picked up on this real quick.

Justice Now: As usual, no one will be held accountable. All statutory bodies, GLCs and GLICs are headed by politicians.

Every one of these entities is becoming a piggy bank for these politicians to build their war chest and fund their personal luxury.

The top management of these entities are just ‘budak suruhan’ (lackeys), they won't be held accountable.

The MACC is going for ‘ikan bilis’ (small fish). When these cases come up, it will always be an "ongoing investigation".

Slumdog: Indeed, when will this plundering end? Where is the MACC chief commissioner? Oh yes, he has problems of his own.- Mkini