LETTERS: ONE major Bumiputera-empowering institution is Majlis Amanah
Rakyat (Mara). As a policy enabler and a national institution with a statutory mandate, Mara has made giant strides in education and entrepreneurship enabling since the late 1960s.
Mara has become the “go to” place for aspiring students, professionals, budding entrepre-neurs as well as pioneering and visionary industrialists. Mara is actually an ecosystem from talent development all the way to value and wealth creation through ventures and partnerships.
Mara founders, especially lawmakers in Parliament, knew well that Mara would need autonomy and latitude — one that is almost entrepreneurial — to reclaim lost economic ground.
As a recent consolidator of Mara’s ventures, Mara Corp’s board and management comprising of professionals must be given the leeway to deal with any corporate transgressions of the past. If ventures can be turned around (and most likely they can be), the Mara leadership should give, where applicable, all the moral and financial support to Mara Corp as their businesses are thriving organisms meant to flourish to form the protective roofs for sustained economic security held up by the Mara “pillars”.
The Mara business portfolio needs to be allowed to accelerate local or regional partnerships. As dominant players here, they should aspire to be fierce competitors in the regional and global arena.
And be part of Malaysia Inc’s expansion into economic blocs with enhanced multilateral development financing arrangements such as Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Islamic Development Bank and others, alongside the highly challenged national Development Finance Institutions system.
Mara Corp’s pioneering Lynas partnership can put Malaysia on the rare earth industry map. Only those who are out of sync with the advent of the new economy would not want Mara Corp to continue with such an endeavour.
One can replicate the partnership model with a few industries in line with the 12th Malaysia Plan, calibrated with the upcoming industrial master plan. Malaysia needs to reindustrialise in more ways than one. All stakeholders and agencies must harmonise to realise this goal.
Mara is the natural partner to cement a collaboration with Huawei and Alibaba to jointly develop artificial intelligence talent and products for the world market. Mara Corp can be the “lunar probe” to help the Mara “mothership” and its stakeholders conquer new galaxies.
Stakeholder engagement is key to ensure policy alignment and validation. It would be a shame if Mara does not tap its “power to convene” with a range of prominent and “younger” agencies. If its custodians feel that this is too much to handle, then they should reach out to that rich talent pool of Mara alumni and related agencies to put things right.
I hope that the Mara leadership, especially its board, will persuade the government to reinstate the 2020 Budget’s omission of Mara’s emolument.
Mara custodians must be mission-oriented. They must implement the full mandate. Let professionals come in and deliver it, in terms of investment, industry development and socio-economic development.
The Mara leadership must uphold the 1966 Mara Act and if they can’t, they should ask themselves if they are doing the right thing or wavering amid the “noise”.
Let’s not be further distracted by past issues, ministry circulars and gazettes. Do not amend a well-thought out legislation that has worked for the past half a century and propelled millions of students and entrepreneurs as key contributors to sustainable development. Let’s focus on the full mandate as we are collectively duty-bound to launch our communities, industries, businesses and aspiring leaders into orbit!
RIZAL ISHAK
Kuala Lumpur
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times