Three groups have called for National Unity Minister Aaron Ago Dagang’s resignation over his handling of the Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit (Mitra) being moved to his ministry.
The Malaysian Indian Action Force (MIA Force), Malaysia-Singapore Workers’ Task Force (Pemas), and Future Indian Revolution In Education (Fire) handed over a memorandum on this matter to the Prime Minister’s Department (PMD) via the prime minister’s special duties officer Shanmugan Mookan outside of Parliament today.
“Aaron got no interest? Then he should resign,” Dayalan Sreebalan, the chairperson of the three groups, told the media after handing over the memorandum.
Also present were Klang MP V Ganabatirau and around 30 people from the Indian community.
On March 13, Aaron (above) said he was “blank” when Mitra was moved to his ministry.
“I was blank, I did not know the purpose of Mitra. And I have to be fair because I don’t have interest,” he said, according to Hansard.
Last night, Malaysiakini contacted Aaron’s press secretary Shatesh Kumar Sangar, who said that the public had misunderstood what the minister said.
“His meaning was not about lack of minat, but kepentingan,” he said.
Both words translate to interest in English, with minat referring to interest as in likes or dislikes, whereas kepentingan refers to vested interests or stakes.
‘Return Mitra to PMD’
In response, Dayalan said that Aaron not having importance regarding Mitra was worse than not having interest and called for Mitra to be returned to the PMD.
He also criticised the invitation to Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, and Gerakan president Dominic Lau to an engagement session on Mitra.
“What is the purpose of inviting Hadi, Muhyiddin, Lau, and all these people to come and give their ideas on Mitra?
“First of all, what do they know about the Indian sentiments?” he asked.
Dayalan went on to criticise Aaron’s move to consult the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) over Mitra.
He claimed that Pemandu, as a Sarawak-based consultant, does not know about the issues concerning the Indian community.
He further alleged that Pemandu had failed in implementing two programmes before, MyAtom and MyTukar.
Originally known as the Socio-economic Development of Indian Community (Sedic), it was created in 2014 as a PMD unit during Najib Abdul Razak's time in power.
After Pakatan Harapan formed the government in 2018, Sedic was renamed Mitra and transferred to the National Unity Ministry until September 2022 before being transferred back to the PMD by then-premier Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
In December last year, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim reversed the decision, which critics condemned as a confusing “demotion” for the unit.
Anwar justified the shift back to the National Unity Ministry, saying that the government had cleaned up Mitra with strict and good governance practices to ensure no abuse of power or misconduct.
The prime minister also said he would still be keeping an eye on Mitra. - Mkini
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