Zahid vows to reinstate TAR UC allocation plus extras with more Chinese support
BN chairperson Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today promised to reinstate the matching grant for the Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TAR UC) if the opposition comes back to power in the 15th general election.
"The more Chinese voters swing back to the opposition coalition the more allocation will be given to TAR UC," he said when officiating the 66th MCA annual general assembly at Wisma MCA today...
BN chairperson Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today promised to reinstate the matching grant for the Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TAR UC) if the opposition comes back to power in the 15th general election.
"The more Chinese voters swing back to the opposition coalition the more allocation will be given to TAR UC," he said when officiating the 66th MCA annual general assembly at Wisma MCA today.
"This is my promise. The promise is (we will) give allocation to TAR UC and Tunku Abdul Rahman University (Utar) as given by the previous government when we take over as the (new) government.
"The promise will be fulfilled," he said to a huge applause.
"If the Chinese voters give more support, the allocation will be further increased."
Zahid also declared that Umno and BN will support the struggle of MCA in fighting for TAR UC's government allocations.
"This is because, in the matter related to education, there shouldn't be any agenda of politic, race and religion," he said.
TAR UC received an average of RM30mil to RM60mil annually under the previous government.
The Pakatan Harapan government, however, has slashed funding in an effort to get MCA to relinquish control over the varsity.
This year, the government only allocated RM5.5 million for TAR UC and no matching grant was given.
Under Budget 2020, the allocation for TAR UC further reduced to RM 1 million.
On Nov 22, the government agreed to channel RM30 million to TAR UC through a trust fund managed by its alumni.
'Stop it, we have had enough'
In his policy speech earlier, MCA president Wee Ka Siong appealed to Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng to stop oppressing TAR UC.
"Stop it, we have had enough. Stop the political persecution against TAR UC," he said.
On Nov 26, the Finance Ministry had informed TAR UC that its board of trustees was illegal as all the trustees are MCA members.
"Since when we had a law which states that members of a political party cannot sit in the trustee board? It contravenes the basic human rights," Wee (photo) said.
He questioned if the finance minister intended to split TAR UC by naming one of the alumni to manage the RM30 million allocation for the institution.
Citing China President Xi Jinping's famous quote in handling US-China trade war, he said MCA "does not make trouble but will not fear any trouble".
Wee, who helms the trustee board of TAR UC, said PKR vice-president Tian Chua met him and former MCA president Liow Tiong Lai at the Royal Lake Club on July 31.
"He asked half of the trustee board members to resign and be replaced by the Tunku Abdul Rahman Alumni Association (TAA) members named by Lim. This was forced upon us and we rejected it," he said.
According to Wee, Chua later made another attempt, this time with PKR minister Saifuddin Abdullah Ahmad.
He said MCA obliged and formally submitted the names of four independent candidates to Saifuddin in the following meeting in October. However, the names were not accepted.
Wee also renewed his challenge to debate with Lim on TAR UC allocation.
In an immediate response, the DAP secretary-general's office said the fact that MCA members sit on the TAR UC trustee board showed that MCA is in control of the institution.
"The (similar) dangers of political control of TAR UC can be seen in the 1MDB scandal that shamed our country into becoming a global kleptocracy.
"The time has come to return TAR UC back to the Chinese community. This is only fair since TAR UC was funded by the Chinese community," it said.
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