An opposition parliamentarian today questioned the validity of a fund-raising drive for a Malaysian Indian Congress-owned university which is currently under construction.

Lim Hock Seng (DAP-Bagan) claimed the fund raising for Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology (Aimst) could "open a door for Aimst Sdn Bhd to practise corruption".

Aimst, currently under construction at Semiling, Kedah is expected to be completed by next February. According to Lim, the MIC set up Aimst Sdn Bhd to collect funds from the public.

Lim argued that the fund-raising was against the Company Act and clause 2 (d) of Aimst's articles of association stipulates that a limited company is not allowed to collect donation and money from the public.

"If the government allows a limited company to collect donation from the public, it also opens a door for the company to carry out corruption because the company is controlled by the board of directors and not required to be accountable to the government, public, MIC or those who had donated," Lim said.

Three shareholders

"MIC president Samy Vellu has disclosed that the government agreed to allocate RM50 million to Aimst, and my question is whether this RM50 million will also be channelled into Aimst Sdn Bhd," he asked during the debate on the second reading of the amendment for Private Higher Educational Institutions Act this afternoon in the Dewan Rakyat.

The MIC chief recently asked the party's 4000 branches to raise RM11,000 each to achieve another RM50 million for Aimst apart from the government allocation.

According to a document obtained by Lim, the company set up in 1999 - originally known as Safe Multimedia Sdn Bhd - changed its name to Aimst Sdn Bhd in July 6, 2000. It is currently owned by three shareholders.

He also asked the Education Ministry to give a clear definition on political party-backed universities such as Aimst and the MCA-run Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Utar) whether these universities are classified as public or private university since the two received financial assistance from the government.

Lim wanted the ministry to explain whether there is any guideline to monitor the public funds raised by the two universities.

"If this is allowed to happen, will the government allow more private companies to collect funds for school or other learning institutions?" Lim asked, referring to the fund-raising drive of Aimst.

'Don't be silly'

Lim's remarks and queries seemed to irk MIC secretary-general and Health Ministry's parliamentary secretary S Sothinathan who was in the House this afternoon.

Sothinathan, who also appeared emotional, dismissed Lim's statements as "allegations played up against the party's university". At one point, he told Lim, "Don't be silly".

"What he said was not based on any fact," Sothinathan claimed, prompting Lim to stand up, and waving several documents as if to show proof.

Met outside the House, Sothinathan told malaysiakini that the documents obtained by Lim were uncertified documents obtained from the Internet.

During the winding up, Education Ministry's parliamentary secretary Mahadzir Mohd Khir said Aimst and Utar are both classified as private universities.

"The financial assistance given to them was one-off allocation which means the government had only allocated a certain amount when they were first established," he explained.

On the validity of the fund raising, Mahadzir said the matter was not under the jurisdiction of his ministry as it only gave approval for the establishment of the university.

Court application

According to media reports, two Indian businessmen, S Dominic and Manzur Maniarasu had on May 29 served a writ of summons against Aimst Sdn Bhd.

They contended that Aimst has sought contributions from them through the company's agents and representatives to raise funds for the university.

They claimed that through the assurance given by Aimst's agents and representatives, they fully believed that their contribution would be deposited into a trust fund instead of the account of a limited company.

However, through the searches they conducted with the Registrar of Companies, they found that Aimst is a limited company and its shareholders are three individuals.

The duo are seeking an injunction to restrain the company from handling the account as well as the freezing of Aimst's bank account until the disposal of the case.

They are also seeking an order for a change of status of Aimst from a limited company to that of a holdings whereby public contributions are handled by a trust fund.

JMTM expenses

Meanwhile, the information ministry today revealed the total amount spent to send the Joint Media Team Malaysia (JMTM) to cover the Iraq war.

According to Information Minister Khalil Yaakob, a total of RM2.11 million was used on air fares, subsistence allowances, hotel rooms and transportation.

The other expenditures involves medication, telephone fees, translators' fees and payment for satellite services, he said in his written reply to Shaziman Abu Mansor (BN - Tampin).

The government sent a 40-member media team to cover the US-led invasion into Iraq in April to give local readers a more balanced reporting on the war.