See tells Wan Junaidi to get facts right, stop blaming Tekun Nasional, BSN staff for being ‘uninformed’

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See Chee How

KUCHING: Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister Dato Sri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar has been urged to get his facts right and to stop blaming the staff in Tekun Nasional and Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN) about being uninformed about the interest-free loan of up to RM10,000 for delivery riders.

Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How made this call today, noting that the statement made by Wan Junaidi on June 21 had been widely reported in all the printed and online media, urging all Sarawakians interested to work as delivery riders to apply with Tekun Nasional for the special interest-free motorcycle loan worth RM10,000, for the purchase of a motorcycle equipped with delivery boxes and bags.

“Frankly, I have thought that this is an excellent initiative to help those Sarawakians who are now struggling to make a decent living by working as a delivery rider.

“However, there were numerous complaints from the applicants who had called up Tekun offices that they found that there was no such incentive schemes being offered in Sarawak and for the non-Bumiputera and non-Indian applicants, they were told that they are not qualified to apply for any of the Tekun interest-free micro credit facilities.

“That had warranted my visit to Tekun Sarawak head office and two BSN branches to seek verification,” he said in a press statement today.

See was responding to Wan Junaidi’s statement on Saturday that it was not because the facility to provide a maximum of RM10,000 interest-free loan to eligible delivery riders is not available but maybe the personnel in-charge at the time were not informed.

See said he was happy with the timely clarification by the Tekun Sarawak branch manager Roslan Ais, to correct the misrepresentation made by the minister.

Roslan in a statement on Saturday, had announced that the “Tekun Mobilepreneur 2.0” will only be launched on July 7 and it is opened to 100 early qualified applicants who meet the conditions set out, and later opened to qualified e-hailing riders, capping at 500 riders.

“This is far from what the minister had disclosed a week earlier,” said See.

See also noted that Wan Junaidi was quoted by an English daily as elaborating on the initiative that: “That is why we have allocated an initial of RM200 million for the purpose of motorcycle loans nationwide. We are now left with RM50 million but the government has chipped in an additional allocation of RM400 million for the same purpose.”

In response, See said this was a misplaced representation that RM150 million out of the RM200 million allocated for the special initiative was to provide interest-free micro credit facility worth RM10,000 for the purchase of a motorcycle equipped with delivery boxes and bags, and the government was chipping in an additional allocation of RM400 million for the same purpose.

“The RM150 million outlay can only mean that there had been 15,000 successful applicants and the minister was mistaken it with an earlier Tekun Mobilepreneur 1.0 scheme which had helped 211 delivery riders to repair their motorcycles and install delivery accessories, with maximum financing of RM2,000 each. As disclosed by Roslan Ais, a total of RM394,000 had been given out under the said scheme.

“The minister must get his facts right. Don’t blame the officers in Tekun Nasional and BSN that they were uninformed. The officers in Tekun had even duplicated the press article of the minister and faxed it to the head office in Kuala Lumpur to request for clarification.”

Nevertheless, See would like to advise Wan Junaidi to request for more allocation for the “Tekun Mobilepreneur 2.0”.

“The allocation for 100 applicants at the launching on July 7 and to eventually cap the successful applications at 500 will be too little if the programme is to benefit all intended delivery riders in the country.

“Further, with the allocation that is coming from the government, there is no reason to exclude certain ethnic group from this interest-free micro credit facility. It will contribute significantly to the country’s economic recovery by implementing meritocracy in such initiatives to uplift the general wellbeing,” See said.