TMJ: 'Tan Sri' should explain Mara sponsorship for Kelantan

PETALING JAYA: Johor crown prince Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim (pix) has called on a "Tan Sri" to explain the sponsorship of the Kelantan "The Red Warriors" (TRW) football team by Pelaburan Mara and University of Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) respectively.
In a posting on the Johor Southern Tigers Facebook page today, Tunku Ismail also attached photographs of documents which purportedly showed a RM200,000 sponsorship by Pelaburan MARA and RM500,000 sponsorship by its education arm UniKL respectively.
"Well, for the Tan Sri first. Before using (Mohd) Faiz Subri's success for your popularity by saying that I am arrogant, why doesn't Tan Sri come forward to give an explanation about sponsorship money from Mara investments and UniKL who were forced to sponsor the Red Warriors team?" he said.
Pointing out that the nation's economy is weak and there are fiscal cuts here and there, Tunku Ismail questioned the "Tan Sri" in his position as Mara chairman for allegedly using public funds to fund TRW.
While Tunku Ismail did not specifically name the individual in the posting, the current MARA chairman is Tan Sri Annuar Musa, who is also the president of the Kelantan football team.
"Having already used funds from Pelaburan Mara, this didn't stop you from tapping reserves in UniKl.
"Given the weak economy, in 2016, UniKl was forced to reduce the allocation for scholarships of Malaysian students from RM2 billion to RM1.3 billion," he added.
As such, Tunku Ismail called upon the "Tan Sri" to explain the direction of Pelaburan Mara and UniKL as it belongs to all Malaysians.
In response, Annuar dismissed the accusations saying that he does not wish to get involved in any polemics with any individual over such matters.
"Mara has never sponsored TRW, not even a single sen. The Mara 50th anniversary logo on the TRW jersey was given free even though the sponsorship space was worth RM250,000 for other companies," he responded to theSun via WhatsApp, today.
While UniKL, he said as a private company had neither sponsored nor provided scholarship to its students.
"Therefore there is no issue involving the use of sponsorship or scholarship funding. As such the sponsorship deal with TRW is purely under its branding and marketing strategy to attract the younger generation," he added.