ADUN SPEAKS | Maika, Sedic, and Mitra are a curse on poor Indians

ADUN SPEAKS | There is no end to financial scandals in general and amongst the various ethnic communities in the country. It gives the appearance that Malaysians have not learned lessons from the past as these scandals are very often repeated in their various manifestations.

These scandals go to show that the political leadership in general and the ethnic leadership, in particular, have failed the ordinary people. In Malaysia, history very often repeats itself in the form of financial scandals and abuse of public funds.

Funds meant for the uplift of the poor have been hijacked to cater for the interests of those who manage public funds, but the unfortunate thing is that these scandals are allowed to repeat and those responsible getting away scot-free.

Those who have robbed the public of huge sums of money are roaming the corridors of power.

The impression is that robbing the country of public funds pays in two respects - you can get away with it, and you can even come back to power politically.

The Malaysian Indian community, making up about 7 percent of the population, is the most marginalised and deprived. Consisting mainly of the working class in urban and rural areas, the community has been fundamentally neglected in a political system where primacy is given to the majoritarian interests.

Maika's history of financial abuse

From time to time, attempts have been made by political parties such as MIC to assist the community and public funds have been allocated through special agencies to assist the target group - Indians in need of assistance.

In the 1980s, the MIC set up Maika Holdings, a special purpose vehicle to mobilise funds from the community for investment purposes. Within a short period of time, nearly RM100,000 were collected from MIC members to launch the fund under the former party president S Samy Vellu.

In the initial period, the accumulation of funds was impressive. In fact, very few companies could have matched the performance of Maika Holdings. Years back, I estimated that if the company had engaged in prudent financial management, the Indian community could have assets worth billions.

However, it was only a matter of time before greed and selfishness took hold of Maika Holdings and led it to ruin. The company was sold to an outsider and shareholders were only paid 80 percent of their shares’ value.

Under MIC, there have been other scandals associated with the cooperatives run by some party leaders. Maika Holdings is a sad chapter in the lives of Indians. It was a humiliation as a result of irresponsible and greedy leadership.

The sad thing is that those responsible for the collapse of Maika Holdings have never been charged with criminality. Even the prime mover behind Maika Holdings, who is also responsible for hijacking Telekom shares to three other companies that had nothing to do with the welfare of the Indian community, has yet to answer for the treachery.

But the Maika Holdings financial scandal was not the last as more initiatives were formed to assist poor Indians.

Old wine in new bottle

Under BN, when it was helmed by Najib Abdul Razak, Socio-economic Development of Indian Community (Sedic) was set up with public funds to assist the Indian community.

How the funds were disbursed and who benefited from it should be a subject of investigation by the law enforcement agencies. I believe Sedic funds never reached the targeted group, and, to date, there has been no investigation on the matter.

It was simply run like an MIC outfit, one can speculate as to the actual beneficiaries.

Under the Pakatan Harapan administration, Sedic was renamed and reorganised as the Malaysian Indian Transformation Research Unit (Mitra) under former minister P Wathya Moorthy. RM100 million was allocated in 2019 and in 2020, before the Harapan government collapsed due to treachery.

After the PN government took over the reins of power, Mitra was placed under the National Unity Ministry. I understand that a number of police reports have been lodged against Mitra and those responsible for the disbursement of funds.

The matter was raised in Parliament and the minister in charge said when she took office, the full RM100 million was not given to Mitra, only a partial amount. It seems she was trying to pin the blame on those who managed the funds during the Harapan period without mentioning the fact that funds were also abused after PN took power.

The MACC is now investigating the scandal and has arrested 16 company directors that received funds from Mitra. There may be further arrests.

Eliminate indirect channelling of funds

The idea of assisting the Indian community indirectly by channelling funds to non-governmental organisations is improper and highly unethical. Such a method is ineffective as the funds may be abused.

I understand that a big portion of the funds allocated might have been used for administrative purposes of the NGOs, including salaries for their staff. Whatever remains were then passed over to individuals or groups.

Both Sedic and Mitra are guilty of not passing the funds to the affected groups and individuals directly. This indirect nature of disbursement only benefited the NGOs. This is the reason why the funds meant for the community have been abused to the advantage of the directors of the organisations.

I urge the authorities to investigate not only the wrongdoings of Mitra, but also its predecessor, Sedic. It is shocking to hear that organisations were just set up to apply for Mitra funds with no experience in community work.

If the MACC is serious in its investigation, then many heads will roll, including some influential and politically connected individuals. This is a terrible curse on Indians in the country.

They are not only squeezed by the racist system but their leaders have also maliciously and irresponsibly diverted public funds from the community to a few individuals.

How can Indians have faith in the system and their leaders?

P RAMASAMY is Perai assemblyperson and Penang deputy chief minister II.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.