Pick up the phone and talk to me, Waytha tells Ramasamy

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department P Waythamoorthy (photo, above) said Penang Chief Minister II P Ramasamy should pick up the phone and talk to him instead of publicly accusing him of not being transparent with regard to funding for the Indian community.

This is after Ramasamy, who is DAP's Perai assemblyperson, questioned Waythamoorthy of what had become of the RM100 million allocation for the Indian community in Budget 2019.

Speaking on the sidelines of an Orang Asli event in Subang Jaya, Waythamoorthy said all funds dispersed through the Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit (Mitra) are already published on its website.

"I think we are the only unit that actually displays who receives what and how much... I don't think you will find that in any other ministry. How more transparent can I be?

"He is misinformed. He is ignorant... We belong to the same government. He can always pick up the phone and speak to me," he told journalists.

Earlier today, Ramasamy criticised Waythamoorthy for not attending a meeting by the Pakatan Harapan Indian Malaysian caucus.

"Wathyamoorthy has been entrusted with the responsibility to ensure that the money is channelled to improve the quality of the lives of Indians who are still entrapped in the vicious circle of poverty and crime. 

"Apparently, the fund has been dispensed to various organisations, but until today there is no transparency," he said in a statement today.

Ramasamy (photo, above) claimed Waythamoothy was invited to present information to the Elected Indian Representatives Council of Pakatan Harapan (Eircph) but had failed to do so.

He also claimed that the funds had been channelled to individuals and organisations that "had no intrinsic interest in the upliftment of the Indian community".

"Now if Wathyamoorthy thinks that by being silent, he could ignore the demands of accountability, he is certainly wrong or ill-advised.

"All he needs to do is publicly account for how the RM100 million taxpayers money was spent, for what purposes and names of organisations that received the funds.

Waythamoorthy said he attended the Pakatan Harapan Indian Malaysian caucus meetings in the past and should not be judged for simply missing one meeting.

"Separately, I will be organising a meeting in the next two to three weeks to update them. He has to be patient," said the senator.

Waythamoorthy said Mitra is relatively new compared to other decades-old ministries and is starting afresh.

"You can't immediately compare us with other ministries. We are working now, it takes time to work out things.

"I understand the frustrations of the community, Indians have been marginalised for far too long. With the change of government, everybody is anxious and want things to happen immediately," he said.

Waythamoorthy said he wants to ensure that government funds will reach the people for social-economic programmes.

The list of Mitra funding, provided by Waythamoorthy's office, is also available in the parliamentary written reply below:

-Mkini