MIED CEO: Meeting with Najib not an ultimatum

Maju Institute for Education Development (MIED) chief executive officer P Chithirakala Vasu today said her request to meet with Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak was not an ultimatum.

Speaking to reporters in Kuala Lumpur today, Chithirakala said she wanted to meet Najib in his capacity as finance minister to clarify the alleged discrepancies in MIED, which has led to her locking horns with MIC president S Samy Vellu.

"I am not giving any deadlines to the (incoming) prime minister. I'm sure he (Najib) knows my problem is quite serious... and I am sure he will see me. (But) if he doesn't want to see me then I can make arrangements for what I have to do next," she said.

"I know the deputy prime minister is a very busy man especially with recent developments. Therefore, I will wait a reasonable time to see him," she added.

The MIED CEO was told to go on leave late December pending an internal investigation into the alleged irregularities in giving out maintenance contracts for the Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology (Aimst).

However, the rift between the MIC president and Chithirakala widened when they both accused each other of mismanaging MIED funds.

To date, the MIED CEO has been called in four times to the police station to give her statements and all her banking accounts – including her personal accounts – have been frozen.

'I stopped him from doing wrong'

Asked on why she wanted to meet Najib, she said: "He is the (future) Barisan Nasional leader and he is Samy Vellu's boss, therefore only Najib can interfere."

"I am not rejoicing in what I am doing now... whatever I knew would have gone to my grave if Samy Vellu didn't do this," she said.

"When I said I protected him for 14 years, people think that I protected his wrongdoings but I have always prevented him from doing wrong things," she added.

She scited the instance of land for the Aimst University, where Samy Vellu and the university's chairperson K Ampikaipakan had instructed her to pay the premium from the privately run Aimst when the land was allocated under MIED.

"At that time Aimst never had the money but they told me to transfer the money from MIED to Aimst... but luckily I am a little a bit educated and told them that the person who pays the premium is the owner and that Amist was a private entity," she said.

"We also have to play along... what else to do, they are the bosses," she said, adding that after some interference, she had managed to register the land under MIED.

Aimst operating on expired temporary CF

Aimst is located in Semeling, Kedah and began operations two years ago. The university was the brainchild of Samy Vellu and was funded by donations from MIC branches throughout the country.

Thus far, it has been confirmed that police have taken statements former MIED Capital Sdn Bhd chief M Mahalingam, who was sacked suddenly as MIC treasurer-general in December last year.

"I am very upset that Samy Vellu is not bothered that the name of the university is being tarnished... the idea was his but everybody contributed to make it complete," Chithirakala said.

She also revealed another startling claim that the university was being managed under a temporary Certificate of Fitness (CF) which apparently expired last week.

However, Malaysiakini was unable to contact Ampikaipakan to confirm the allegation.

According to Chithirakala, Aimst was not given the CF due to non-compliance to the master plan of the university which required a mosque and a temple to be built.

She added that the construction of a mosque and a temple in the university's grounds were also suggested by Samy Vellu.

"Now he doesn't want to build the building and blamed that the project managers had put it in the master plan... that is a blatant lie.

"But now he is denying it and said there is no money but there is RM50 million in fixed deposit. They only need RM4 million for the mosque and RM2 million for the temple," she said.