Keep Mara as a single agency and avoid revenge politics, says Zahid Hamidi, as splitting up Mara between different ministries will lead to its destruction.
Umno president Zahid Hamidi says Mara was set up by Parliament to help the Malay and Bumiputera communities.
PETALING JAYA: Umno warned the federal government against “revenge politics” leading to a carve-up of Mara’s multiple entities being placed under different ministries.
Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said Mara should remain a single agency, and reminded Putrajaya was the agency was set up by an act of Parliament in 1966 to assist the Malay and Bumiputera community.
The party was against any efforts to break up Mara, he said, as such a move would ultimately lead to Mara’s destruction.
Mara currently reports to the rural and regional development ministry. However, the entrepreneur development ministry has urged Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to place the agency under its purview, as it was before.
The government has said that it will decide under which ministry Mara will be placed within the first 100 days of Pakatan Harapan coming to power.
A possible carve-up of Mara was raised in a tweet by Umno secretary-general Annuar Musa, a former Mara chairman.
He speculated that Mara’s divisions could be split among the rural and regional development ministry, entrepreneurial development ministry, education ministry, Prime Minister’s Department, and the economic affairs ministry.
Zahid, who was deputy prime minister in the previous government, said today: “Umno wants the government to maintain Mara as a single agency under the monitoring of a ministry to continue the Bumiputera struggles, as espoused by the Bumiputera Congress in 1965.”
Putrajaya must realise that Mara was established by an Act of Parliament in 1966 and that Umno would be devastated if any changes were made to the agency without going through Parliament.
He said any efforts to carve up and divide Mara will make it difficult for the agency to meet its goals of assisting the Malay and Bumiputera community.
“Mara should not become a victim of revenge politics,” he said adding Mara has served the Bumiputera community for 52 years. -FMT
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