Dr M: Mara will not be split up

KUALA LUMPUR: The government has decided to place Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) under the Rural Development Ministry where it originally belonged.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the decision was made after receiving objections to the government’s earlier proposal to split Mara’s role among various ministries because of the agency’s size.

“Because Mara has become so big for one party to run it, it is not adequate, so we allocated it to a few ministries but we received strong protests for giving the roles to other ministries.

“So now, we give it back to one ministry only,” he said to applause from the more than 2,000 bumiputras who attended The Future of the Bumiputra and the Nation Congress 2018 yesterday.

Dr Mahathir said this in response to a question raised by a participant during a dialogue session at the congress.

The participant wanted to know which ministry would be responsible for Mara.

He said he hoped the ministry would be willing to take up the responsibility as Mara was not just focusing on rural development.

“Mara is not a small agency but is involved in various fields such as rural development, business, training, education and investment management,” he said.

Mara was set up on March 1, 1966 under the Parliament Act as a statutory body following a resolution passed at the first Bumiputra Economic Congress in 1965.

On July 23, Entrepreneurial Deve­lopment Minister Mohd Redzuan Mohd Yusof had said Mara’s status would soon be decided by the Prime Minister.

He said the regulatory responsibilities of the bumiputra agency were still at discussion stage in the Cabinet.

Following this, Umno secretary-general Tan Sri Annuar Musa tweeted the party’s concerns over reports that Mara would be split up and placed under the control of several ministries.

These include Rural and Regional Development, Entrepre­neurial De­­ve­­lop­ment, Education and the Prime Minister’s Depart­ment.

Dr Mahathir gave an assurance that the government would provide adequate assistance to Mara to ensure the agency would successfully carry out its role.

To another question, Dr Mahathir said the government would treat Sabah and Sarawak fairly and would not differentiate the two states from other states in Penin­sular Malaysia.

On minimum wage, for example, both states would enjoy the same amount as in the peninsula. Infrastructure development would also be the same.

“We need to build infrastructure there similar to how we do it here (in the peninsula), but it should be remembered that the population there is less than in the peninsula.

“That’s why it looks as though we are giving priority to the people in the peninsula but actually we take into account the return on investment, whether the infrastructure can be fully utilised by the people of Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.

He was asked on government measures to help Sabah and Sara­wak so that the two states would be as developed as those in the peninsula.