Has MARA run out of funds leaving hundreds stranded without their bumiputera student loans – and how can such a financial scandal happen?
I have received the following email from a Malay student in a private college:
“I am 21. My father left the family in 1995 and since then my mother has been taking care of the family by herself. I have two other elder sisters, all of whom are working now. My mother was a teacher but now she is retired. She is taking care of the family by herself with the pension she receives every month.
“I studied in … School and later at International Islamic College (IPTS), taking a diploma in computer science. I was a self-sponsored student in IIC.
“I was supported by my mother since she could afford it back then but I had to keep to a really tight budget. Although we were in a quite a difficult financial situation back then, I didn’t waste any time and studied hard.
“I was in the dean’s list every semester until I graduated, with an overall CGPA of 3.931. After graduating, I worked for one year as a technician to gain some experience before I furtherd my studies at …College, taking Bachelor in Computer Science.“In December 2008, I went to … College to enquire about their courses and other details such as the fees. My enquiries was handled by Mr. … and he helped me a lot with my documentations. I asked him if there’s any financial aid for bumiputera students and he said that most bumiputera students in …are sponsored by MARA and he encouraged me to apply for the same MARA loan (discounts apply if my results are good).
“In early January 2009, I went to see … again to submit my application form, but I didn’t submit it together with the MARA form as the deadline for the MARA loan application is on the 14th of March 2009. I paid RM4750.00 as part of my first semester fees. I was told that the remainder will be settled by MARA when the MARA loan is approved.
“… I submitted my (MARA) form on the 14th of March 2009. I was made to understand that this is the deadline for both January (Foundation students) and February (degree students) intakes. The application forms for both the intakes will be compiled and sent to MARA HQ after the deadline.
“Recently, on the 28th of May 2009, I went to MARA marketing office in …to check my application status. When I arrived, I asked the same officer about my application and she said ‘Sorry but right now all loan applications are frozen because MARA doesn’t have the funds to support students’. She said that all other students nationwide are affected, not just students from …College.
“When I asked how long must we wait till MARA has the funds, she said ‘We don’t know. We keep calling MARA HQ and they keep asking us to check back one week after another, delaying. Maybe some politicians have their own agenda, even the students who applied in January also has had their loan application frozen’. I was shocked to hear this because when I asked her about the probability of a student like me getting the loan, she practically said it was virtually guaranteed as I had nothing to worry about if I got my application form in order.
“Worst of all, there is no black and white notification saying our applications are frozen and why it is frozen. We were not contacted at all! We weren’t even stopped from applying for the loan if indeed MARA had run out of funds. If I didn’t follow-up and check on my application, I don’t know when will they tell me the true status of my application, if they are planning to do so in the first place. MARA running out of funds seem a far-fetched reason to me. If it is true, perhaps MARA should come clean on its current situation instead of leaving all of us in the dark.
“I am not begging for the MARA loan but there were no notification given that our applications are frozen nor were we stopped from applying for it, giving us false hope. If MARA had told me earlier, I would have tried to find other alternatives to finance my studies. Now with the final exams three weeks away, I am left with this huge problem as I’ve only settled a part of the first semester fees. I can only hope that …College will allow me to sit for the exams while I try to sort out this problem.
“I find this MARA absurdity very funny. Where did the funds of this big organization which is under Kementerian Kemajuan Luar Bandar dan Wilayah go?”
I call on the Minister for Rural and Regional Development, Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal to personally look into this problem and explain to all stranded MARA students as well as their parents where have the millions of ringgit approved by Parliament for purposes loans to bumiputera students gone to.
Of cause, no funds lah!!!
All of them is one way ticket.
Loan granted with no fixed repayment terms!!!
This bumiputra student (a girl, I presume) appears to me to be a very intelligent and responsible person from the way she wrote the email compared to others that had appeared in this blog previously. A big pity that she is in such a predicament. She is merely asking for a loan, not a scholarship or free money and the authorities should look into her case and those of others. Let students have peace of mind to concentrate on their studies.
MARA was set up to assist people like her and has done so for many years. If it has indeed run out of funds, then it and the government must answer why.
Copy and paste part of the email and publish it on this blog wouldn’t solve the problem. Why don’t the Mentor CM bring up this matter to MARA and find a way to help the student (If the email was genuinely written by a Malay). ,,,, Do not have to sensationalize an isolated issue like this to gain attention and popularity……
How nice it would be if banks were to be like MARA, giving out loans without hope of getting them back.
How we can expect a fair selection/distribution of loan when our asst.PM think the best way of this is to limit the subject you can take for exam!
you think our country will getting strong if we force to learn only 1+1 and others country lear “+ – x /”?
I remembered when I was young I used to hear older folks said Malaysia is MAS – Mana Ada System. That was 40 YEARS AGO!
And today, the same MAS still applies to Malaysia, under BN. What la???????????? 40 years still can’t put school funds allocation systematically, but only dish out a couple of millions RM here and there before “election”; Scholarship system is still in a mess and we are talking about investing in the future leaders of our country. And now MARA loans!!!!!
We are a real big international joke, some more dare to send out space tourist. Grrrrrr……
That’s the reason why our nation needs another group of Malays to team up with other non Malays to enable a 2 party systems to work its political course so that all these mismanagement mess can be cleaned up once and for all!!!!!!
While there is a lot of political rhetoric and rallying call saying Pakatan Rakyat is harming Malay interest blah blah blah, the real proof of such incidents is revealed here.
I wonder if Pewaris is going to look into this, eh?
however, the real issue here is really the proper management of funds as well as the recovery of defaulted loans.
the funds statement should be made public, just like the audited accounts of financial institutions. In fact, JPA scholarships and these Mara funds should be audited and the financial statements and review of controls should be made for public consumption
The initiative by the Selangor Information Act is to be applauded and I wish Eli Wong all the best in coming up with a viable set of legislation
Steal until there is nothing left to steal….looks like the prophecy is coming true….no more money for subsidies of essential goods, no more money for scholarships, no more money for new infrastructure.
But billions can be spent on submarines, plus hundreds of millions on commissions. Billions can be spent on a ghost town in PKFZ, and many more billions to keep the ghost town afloat. Billions to be spent on the new palace.
The roof is crashing down on all of us, mark my words.
And issue whether to continue or to discard the use of English to teach Science & Maths has gone on long enough and it is still going on ding dong tour. For goodness sake don’t play the fool with the future of our children just so to satisfy personal/ race/ political agenda. It is our children who will have to face up with incresing global challenges. Just carry out a survey from our brightest SPM students up and down the coutry on the matter and we will know exactly which direction to take. STOP THE DING DONG NOW!!!!!!
stupid cintanegara:
Copy and paste this email on to the KMU website and wait for the results. Stop talking through your rear end. Your masters have left you with no money, so I will wait for you to cry by the roadside.
Where has the money gone?
MARA has mismanaged the student loan funds by misallocating the loans to some substandard students who were enrolled into the substandard tertiary educational institutions such as Uitm, UPM, and UUM. After graduating, the university graduates who studied on MARA Student Loans were not able to find a decent job with reasonable income earnings because most of them could not speak fluently even in a complete sentence of English, which is a language skill much needed in the International Business World.
Most poorly-trained Bumiputera university graduates were only able to find a job as an unskilled machine operator in the factory with a salary of RM600 per month. When there was a close-down of the factory due to recession, many of these university graduates were turned to be jobless young people who had no financial capability to pay back their student loans. The high loan delinquency was the main reason which caused the cashflow liquidity problem of MARA funds for Student Loans! This was the end-result of long-term refusal to adopt the system of meritocracy and the over-dependency on the government subsidies by Bumiputera group of Malaysia.
Mr. Moo Hee Din should say and do something positive instead of making stupid remarks about the Penanti by-election result.
The PM cum Finance Minister sounded equally stupid when giving his views about the by-election result. He should have shown the world that he is a man with big balls, and at the same time congratulated PR. He already has so much excess luggage to handle, and more are coming. I think the plane will surely crash like the one that just disappeared in the Atlantic ocean.
As for to limit maximum SPM subjects to be taken to 10, this has to be a stupid idiot fool’s idea. This will kill the nation’s young special talents!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I say in order to secure a full scholarship, a number of things will be taken into consideration on weighted scale to a total of 100%. For example:-
1) SPM result of the best 10 subjects (one my have taken 200 subjects) – 70%
2) School principal’s remak – 10%
3) Extra curriculum activities and level of involvement. – 10%
4) Sports – 5%
5) Talents – eg. more than 10 A’s in SPM subjects taken -5%
During 1960s and 1970s, when a Malaysian student completed his/her M.C.E. examinations, which were equivalent (but not so equivalent because M.C.E. had a much higher academic standard) to SPM examinations, he/she would be able to write beautiful English and to solve complex Calculus problems.
During those days, the schools or the Educational Ministry did not have to set limit on number of subjects that are permitted to be taken during the signing up for public examninations. This was because the M.C.E. or G.C.E. ‘O’ level examinations were very much tougher to pass or to score a good grade than the present SPM examinations. Therefore, most students dared not sign up for more than 10 subjects in M.C.E. examinations during 1960s and 1970s.
The Examinations Syndicate Board just have to raise the examination standards by making the questions much more difficult to answer in the examinations. There should be a way to examine the I.Q. Level of the Exceptional Good Students in SPM examinations. The SPM examinations should not be made so easy and so cheap standard for the students to score a good grade to the extent that it was very common to see the phenomenon of several hundreds students being able to score more than 10 A1 just in one sitting of the examinations! The Malaysian Government has to look into the possibilities of upgrading the academic standards of SPM students and not to be pompous about the commendable number of students who scored more than 10 A1 in the examinations! It is not the quantity only which counts in academic performance. Most often, the quality of the scorers is much more vital for the future academic success of the top students and for the success in standard upgrade of the overall academic performance. Meritocracy is therefore much more important than affirmative action in respect of academic performance!
So called Mara loans for Bumiputra are in actual fact a ‘give-away’, just because the recipients are all Malays/Bumiputra. There is no need for them who received the money to pay back for recycling for others.
That is why Mara is always asking for more money from the BN Government, never being rejected, but the day of reckoning has to come.
As ‘abang-adik’ Mara was never stringent in recovering “loans” from borrowers. To them there is only give-away and no such thing as repayment back of what they had taken in times of need, from others.
So now when the funds run dry some of the applicants will not be enjoying the ‘loan’ as it is. Blame who? Their own doing, what goes round, comes round.
And mind you, who are the ones paying taxes that goes into this kind of one-way ticket ‘loan’ give away by Mara over umpteem
years?
Look for Najib.
He is a caring PM who will even allocate time for school dropout like Saiful and offered him a scholarship. Oh well, though he lied initially saying ‘No such thing’.
With CGPA of 3.931, of course he can offer more. But guess first question when he interviews you will be which party are you from? Not a problem for a smart student like you.
You should be able to handle Najib.
Why don’t DAP offer her the scholarship since the student is having good academic performance?
This is the best way to train up the Bumiputera group of DAP supporter!
because yb lim had ‘cut-and-paste’ the student complaint letter in this blog, that will mean nr will not answer to the door bell.
worst still, nr will call the police to chase her away. that is the police’s ‘duty’. if this student comes again, there will be barbed wire and road block set up to fence her off 5km of nr’s residence.
and if this student really really come again, c~~~4…….
we do know the writer’s real name, address etc.
why should we believe who she says she is? for all we know it could be monster with his big balls, or limkamfart the old fart or even kerishamuddinitis who had picked up something contagious along the way??
Onlooker Politics Says:
Today at 18: 07.17 (1 hour ago)
Why don’t DAP offer her the scholarship ..?”
good idea. will all dap members pass that hat and put money where your mouth is.
This student has to write to the DAP as she knows UMNO is not going to entertain her. Neither will he appeal be published by Utusan Malaysia.
For one the government will deny that loan are frozen. This student will be victimized and refused any loan.
She might even be charged for sedition!!!!!!!!
TomThumb , Onlooker Politics:
why must DAP do the work for the tax collector?
All Pakatan Rakyat parties all not as wealthy as those voted into federal-ship.
BN control the revenue source from income, service, sales, custom taxes etc, why DAP who relies on members’ subscription must pay for it? it is a matter of managing tax money in a proper and trust worthy manner and DAP as a opposition party at federal level, is already doing their job.
If your majlis perbandaran is not paving up the road in front of your house properly, are you still going to pay for the assessment and then buy tar, hire workers and repair the road yourself?
by the your arguments, gentlemen, since Pewaris and UMNO are defenders of Malay rights as they claim, why not they pass the hat around, contact the lady plus other in sight and finance them?
lee wee tak_ Says:
Today at 20: 10.46 (4 minutes ago)
“why must DAP do the work for the tax collector?”
because you asked??
Like they saying goes: all good things must come to an end one day and that day is to-day. After all these years of stealing, mismanagement and abusing, the tap finally runs dry. I am glad of this recession has finally exposed all the weaknesses and corruptions that have gone unchecked. This recession will hurt everyone no doubt and hope it will wake up the those who think that they should be treated special without any effort.
I am sure DAP would love to help and fortunately, it does not have access to public money like the umno does and any help will be based on merit and transparency.
“I am sure DAP would love to help ..”
yes put your money where your mouth is
I can offer programmer job for this person if he/she from klang valley. She/He can continue study and work. Pls ask he/she to send me resume if interested. Tq.
“why must DAP do the work for the tax collector?” (lee wee tak)
For the sake of goodness, all of us shall do charity work in accordance with our personal capability, so that we may store more wealth in Heaven!
Where has all the money gone
Long time passing
Where has all the money gone?
Long time ago
Where has all the money gone?
Greedy crooks has taken all
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
[deleted – you are put on notice, racist statement will not be tolerated]
BN has corrupted beyond redemption. MARA use to be the cash cow for BN to suck now the students have to be suffered from here.
OK..OK…where’s the account number…let’s help this student out while putting BN out of buisness……
[deleted – you are put on notice, racist statement will not be tolerated]
Could this then be the real reason for rolling back the NEP, instead of any altruistic reason forwarded?
our dear pm has told south korea president that he is now interested in nuclear reactor for power generation. [bernama]
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsgeneral.php?id=415373
(1) do we need so much of power capacity? or are we trying to develop nuclear weapon?
(2) that also translate into downstream nuclear waste and environmental problem. the nuclear waste can bury in nr’s backyard, but not mine.
(3) this is spending big money again. when big money is involved, we concern as the our govt has proven not able to manage government spending.
(4) how does this spending stimulate the domestic economy? will someone earn big fat intermediary commission again? then need a korean speaking translator? and have to prepare some xx also. someone has acquired the experience.
and our pilot can’t even fly a fighter jet, i really doubt if we could manage a nuclear facility. depends on long term service contract from S.korea? this will just become another milk cow to some.
depends on our own people to manage? think twice. it will just become another time bomb instantaneously. the nuclear facility can sit in the bn-controlled state. else i have to migrate! :P
Tomdumbo,
The issue is whether MARA has run out of funds for scholarships. If so, hmmmm…where the money-lah? So, it is not about the writer but what the writer claims to be the case.
Yeah, I caught something…najibishittyitis. It is an affliction caused by being exposed to a lying slime ball with baggage that stinks of a rotten corpse and the acrid smell of C4. And since I am sharing with you the the diseases afflicting this country, I might a well explain that kerishamuddin is the imbecile who waved a keris some 4 years back and then used it to desensitize unsuspecting victims. The convulsive disgust in response to that idiotic act is the ‘itis.’
So, did Mara run out of cash? Funny, some slime ball pocketed RM500mil. Others are laundering RM8bil as I write. There were those who arranged a space tour for RM100mil. And so on and so forth…but MARA runs out of cash. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
So Najib now needs a new partner to set up a new service and management company to receive the lucrative fees, since the previous chap, apa nama itu, has retired comfortably in UK. Maybe TomThumb can help!
Why am I suddenly worried about my EPF money.
I know at least 1 ex-MARA student who refuse to pay back the loan even though he’s doing well.
We can’t compare the CGPAs from different local tertiary educational institutions. If A & B get CGPA 3.90 from UM and UiTM respectively, we can’t conclude that A is smarter than B or vice versa. However, we can conclude that A and B are hardworking students. The student mentioned in the article must be a hardworking student. Thus, he/she deserves a scholarship or study loan.
On 2/6/09 at 16:42.04 cintanegara said:
Copy and paste part of the email and publish it on this blog wouldn’t solve the problem.
May be so but at least we are aware that YB LKS has highlighted this problem…
On 2/6/09 at 16:42.04 cintanegara said:
Why don’t the Mentor CM bring up this matter to MARA and find a way to help the student (If the email was genuinely written by a Malay). ,,,,
Who is this Mentor CM?
Anyway, YB LKS has called upon the Minister for Rural & Regional Development to look into this…
On 2/6/09 at 16:42.04 cintanegara said:
Do not have to sensationalize an isolated issue like this to gain attention and popularity……
Is it really an isolated issue?
Supporters of UMNO’s BN should first think of whether their favourite political coalition would gain popularity when things described in that e-mail happens.
Easier for students to drop out of the education system and become Mat Rempit by engaging in illegal bike races to gain attention…
oh my …. how the hell this MARA can sponsor so many students abroad…and insufficient funds for the ones study locally??..what the fuc* the Government is doing..half past six administration..dont hope for more if you’re in boleh land…
cintanegara must really love BN more then he loves the ‘negara’ because BN = racist parties while ‘negara’ = rakyat. And like pkrisnin says, suddenly I too am worried about my EPF money…the rakyat need to worry about their EPF money while we prepare for the inevitable jump in cost of living and increase in price across almot everything due to the impending withdrawal of the subsidies for essential commodities. Besides having the price of our petrol being increased surreptitiously but nowadays consumers are smart – even the auntie can tell you it is a disguised increase in price of petrol.
And rakyat have to suffer this when Slime Ball pocketed RM500mil, the entire gang is now STILL trying to launder RM8bil, they have the gall to spend RM100mil sending 1 single tourist to space, lie to us about the economy and now manage the recession by penalising the people.
——-# Onlooker Politics Says:
Yesterday at 20: 46.52
“why must DAP do the work for the tax collector?” (lee wee tak)
For the sake of goodness, all of us shall do charity work in accordance with our personal capability, so that we may store more wealth in Heaven!——-
while the thieves enjoy now and burn later? what kinda religion would advocate this?
Actually, the MARA signboard is such a racist one when you go deep into its meaning. MARA stands for MAJILIS AMANAH RAKYAT. But how come MARA has been reserved exclusively for the MALAYS only? Aren’t the other RACES in Malaysia RAKYAT too?
MARA should in fact change its signboard to MAME – MAJLIS AMANAH MELAYU!!!!
TomThumb , Onlooker Politics:
IF your UMNO PM stops paying out ang pows, buying canopies for Royal mata mata and all other items with undeclared expenditure, we should be able to help a lot more students in need…get your priority right dickhead!…stop passing the buck to DAP
somebody suggested dap should help. i say good. time to put your money where your mouth is
TomThumb,
UMNO selective comment from this blog suggests you have stagnant peabrain unable to see right from wrong…only oozing out dang from your rear!
Should read “UMNO goon’s”..mistype from my previous comment
To get back the loans, Mara should set up their own shoplot prisons just like Ah Longs. Guarantee those educated borrowers will queue up to repay the loans. Mara can always get good rentals discount from UDA.
Two years ago, my friend was offered TWO scholarships (MARA and JPA) at one time. As JPA offer was slightly higher, he decided to take JPA scholarship to further his postgraduate studies in UK. How many of you will have chance to ‘choose’ scholarships?
Besides the scholarship, he still received his monthly salary while he pursued his studies. So, you see how much he earned. He told me that his supervisor in UK also provided him some cash, approximately RM4000 (conversion rate GBP1=RM5.5). Imagine how much he earned every month…should be approximately RM13,000 plus! That’s why he can bought a MVP (Honda or Toyota) in UK, leaving in a double-storey house in one of the big cities in UK.
My friend is not TOP student for his SPM as he studied his bachelor degree in local universitiy. If he scored many As in SPM, I’m sure he would have offered scholarship to do his first degree in oversea. This is called LUCK or FORTUNE sometimes… same people different lucks…
YOU ALL CAN LABLE THESE SCHOLARSHIPS IS CORRUPTION.
A CORRUPTED SCHOLARSHIPS.
“For the sake of goodness, all of us shall do charity work in accordance with our personal capability, so that we may store more wealth in Heaven!” (Onlooker Politics) ——-
“while the thieves enjoy now and burn later? what kinda religion would advocate this?” (lee wee tak)
lee wee tak,
Are you really serious that you go against doing charity work? What religion do you believe then?
Don’t you know that most Chinese name clan or dialect associations and occupational societies do support doing chariry work, especially charity work in respect of raising funds for establishing a scholarship or study loan scheme?
What is it so difficult for DAP to do some charity work as the community service to raise fund for scholarship? Just get the DAP branch chairperson to despatch some brochures with some write-up and a bank account number and with the signatures of Mr Karpal Singh and YB Kit on the brochures. I believe many DAP supporters will respond positively to DAP’s call for fund-raising for purpose of giving away scholarship, so long as DAP leaders are able to show high transparency in the selection process of the scholarship winners!
Anyway, please study the possibility and viability of the suggestion first before DAP proceeds to do so. I don’t want Najib to have any opportunity to initiate a police arrest on Mr Karpal Singh or YB Kit simply based on the ambiguous reason that these two honourable human beings have committed a criminal offence of illegal fund raising without a license from the Ministry of Finance!
” … suggests you have stagnant peabrain unable to see right from wrong…only oozing out dang from your rear!” wanderer
the thought of “dang oozing out of my rear” and down your throat makes me want to continue
“What is it so difficult for DAP to do some charity work as the community service to raise fund for scholarship” onlooker politics
yes, dap should put the money where its mouth is. help poor students. race does not matter.
I think it’s nothing to do with DAP whether DAP should or not raise charity fund for scholarship. DAP does not have the obligation to do that… But it is the job of JPA and MARA to distribute the scholarship fairly as the money is from tax payer — public fund.
Good students should be awarded properly, especially if they’re poor. 15 years ago, my friend told me that what’s the point to score good result in SPM because no matter how good you score eventually you still have to sit for STPM (a very very tough exam) if you’re not so rich and wish to enter local universities.