Dr Wee: Not a single sen of TAR UC funds has been channelled to an MCA account

PETALING JAYA: Not a single sen received by Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TAR UC) from the government or other means has been channelled to MCA accounts, says party president Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong.

After Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng asked the TAR UC board of trustees to relinquish their posts if they wanted government funding, Dr Wee said the members never received any money.

“It must be stressed that MCA leaders have never betrayed any trust or committed any wrongdoing in administering the TAR UC board of trustees.

“Not a single sen received by TAR UC has been channelled to an MCA account.

“All members of the TAR UC board of trustees do not receive any salaries, remuneration or allowance,” said Dr Wee in a Facebook post on Sunday (Oct 13).

He also challenged any parties to come forward and prove that members of TAR UC board of trustees received monetary compensation in the form of salaries, remuneration or allowance.

“I will not hesitate to take legal action against anyone continuing the slander," said Dr Wee.

He said that Lim deliberately refused to give a matching grant to TAR UC due to his alleged political grudges against MCA and also questioned whether the government budget was decided on Lim’s whims and fancies.

“Did he purposely leave out the allocation (matching grant) for TAR UC from Budget 2019 and 2020 so that he can set this condition and then reinstate the funding?

“Strangely, even Budget 2019 was passed in Parliament last year without any allocation of matching grant to TAR UC.

“But on Saturday (Oct 12), Guan Eng said he could 'give back' RM30mil to TAR UC should MCA leaders step down as the members of its board of trustees. So it’s all up to what he likes to do?” Dr Wee asked.

He also said that even when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was Finance Minister, Education Minister and even Prime Minister from 1981 to 2003, he had never failed to allocate a matching grant for the then TAR College.

“What’s the difference between the structure then and now? Was Chow Kon Yeow, Teresa Kok or any other alumni appointed as the chairman of the board of trustees of TAR College during the tenure of the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia?

“The facts remain the same, that MCA founded TAR College in 1968 and subsequently elevated it to TAR University College in 2012,” said Dr Wee.

He also explained that Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), another institution also founded by MCA, never applied for a matching grant from the government.

Dr Wee said it was unreasonable to cut TAR UC’s development expenditure to just RM1mil on a proposed RM24mil allocation for 2020 when the same institution was given RM5.5mil in development expenditure in 2019.

“Is Lim Guan Eng so powerful that he gets to decide whether TAR UC receives the government funding or not, instead of the entire Cabinet?” questioned Dr Wee.