KUALA LUMPUR – National Unity Minister Datuk Halimah Mohamed Sadique is again in the firing line, this time for organising a briefing session on January 14 – which coincides with Ponggal – with parliamentarians to discuss the Malaysian Indian Blueprint.
This has irked Ipoh Barat MP M. Kula Segaran, who called Halimah “clueless”.
“Despite being the national unity minister, she is clueless that January 14 coincides with Ponggal, a multi-day harvest festival. I call upon the minister to choose a different date for this meeting and to include the discussion of the Mitra scandal,” he said.
“It seems that not one officer has alerted her that it is not wise to hold a meeting about Indian affairs on a day where many Indians spend time with their families.
“Instead, now they can be reminded how the current federal government has taken little to no action about the funds stolen from Mitra (Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit) by certain political leaders.”
He said Halimah’s ministry presides over Mitra, an agency set up to implement socio-economic programmes for the Indian community, particularly the low-income group and the hardcore poor (B40).
Press Statement
— M. Kula Segaran (@mkula) January 8, 2022
Despite being the national unity Minister, she is clueless that January 14th coincides with Ponggal, a multi-day harvest festival.
I call upon the Minister to choose a different date for this meeting and to include the discussion of the MITRA Scandal pic.twitter.com/rPpCLIpSdl
“Just introduce Halimah to Ponggal. It is the time of the year where an Indian family will boil rice, milk and brown sugar in decorated clay pots until it spills over, which signifies abundance and prosperity.
“It is unacceptable that a national unity minister is insensitive to the different cultures in this country.”
He reiterated that the briefing session should include an explanation of the missing Mitra funds.
Last year, Halimah was questioned over the misappropriation of Mitra funds following the arrest of 16 company directors in October.
The authorities estimated millions have been embezzled from the RM100 million allocated for the socio-economic development of Indians.
It was reported that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission is reviewing all applications, expenditure reports and programmes implemented by recipients of Mitra allocations since 2019. – The Vibes, January 8, 2022
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