Pakatan Harapan chairperson Anwar Ibrahim has promised that if the coalition were to return to power in the next general election, they would conduct forensic audits on investment company Maika Holdings Bhd, MIC’s educational arm Maju Institute of Educational Development (MIED) and the Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit (Mitra).
Anwar said the Indian community in Malaysia deserves to know the truth behind the allegations of misappropriation and misuse of these entities.
“I said many irregularities have been proven… there is a need for a forensic audit and if necessary, establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI).
“This is because Indian communities everywhere are complaining about poverty and lack of access to education.
“Allocations were given but not handled well, including when I was in the Finance Ministry back then regarding Maika Holdings.
“But it has been repeated in MIED and Mitra. So, we give the opportunity to the Indian community to examine themselves because that community’s interests were not handled by the government to the point of causing tension,” Anwar said to reporters at a gathering with the Indian community organised by PKR in Shah Alam today.
He was asked to comment on claims made by several PKR leaders during the gathering that the individuals involved in the misappropriation of Maika Holdings remain unpunished while the MACC investigations into Mitra were not thorough.
‘MIED acted as loan shark’
During the gathering, PKR vice-president K Saraswathi claimed that MIED acted as a loan shark by forcing their debtors to repay debts with high-interest rates for any late payments.
“MIED is supposed to provide financial assistance to the poor, not to saddle them with debt.
“There was a case where a student got a loan of RM12,000 and had repaid RM9,000, but couldn’t afford to pay the rest within the time given. They were forced to pay extra with a high-interest rate,” Saraswathi alleged.
Meanwhile, Sungai Buloh MP R Sivarasa welcomed Anwar’s promise of a forensic audit of the three entities.
“We need a forensic audit to find out what happened to the money which was invested. The same goes for Mitra and MIED.
“We know these scandals have been and are being investigated by the MACC, but this has not uncovered anything at all,” he said to reporters when asked to comment on the issue.
The entities
Maika Holdings was established by MIC in the early 1980s as an investment company that raised RM106 million from about 55,000 shareholders - mostly from the low-income group.
However, Maika Holdings failed to provide returns to the investors, causing those who had taken loans or sold their assets to invest to become neglected for years.
The company’s finances worsened in the 1990s when Maika was supposed to buy 10 million Telekom shares, but eventually only purchased one million units of shares.
Meanwhile, Mitra, launched in 2013 by former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, was initially known as the Socioeconomic Development of the Indian Community Unit (Sedic).
It was originally launched with the aim to increase the income of low-income groups in the Indian community.
Sedic was disbanded when the BN government fell after the 14th general election and later revived as Mitra under the Pakatan Harapan administration.
After the Harapan government dissolved, Mitra was placed under the Unity Ministry.
The Mitra fund issue came under the spotlight recently following the arrest of several of the company’s directors who were suspected of being involved in embezzling its allocated grant.
A total of 337 companies, organisations and NGOs were identified as having received grants from Mitra between 2019 and 2021 for an approximate total of RM203 million. - Mkini
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