Permatang Pauh’s mosques, suraus to get RM4.18mil next week
BUTTERWORTH: The RM4.18mil aid for 74 Permatang Pauh mosques and suraus pledged by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak during the constituency’s by-election last August will be disbursed from next week.
State Islamic Religious Council president Shabudin Yahaya said the council had received the funds last August but it had needed about five months to process the applications.
“Usually, it takes about a year for such funds to be disbursed.
“In this case, the Deputy Prime Minister gave a special allocation and the amount was kept in the council’s coffers.
“We could not disburse it immediately as we needed to prepare its detailed specifications first.
“It took us more than a month to personally meet each of the recipients before finalising their applications,” he told a press conference at Masjid Sembilang Seberang Jaya on Friday.
Shabudin was refuting a front-page report in Suara Keadilan , dated 14-21 January, 2009, which claimed Najib had failed to keep an election promise to give out aid to mosques and suraus in Permatang Pauh.
The report quoted Kubang Semang Mosque administrative representative Suhaimi Harun as saying that he received an official letter from Najib’s office last August stating that the aid was approved and would be disbursed soon.
A total of 28 mosques and 46 suraus were supposed to receive RM100,000 and RM30,000 each respectively, to conduct repair work, to upgrade facilities and buy new equipment.
Shabudin said during his meeting with the chairmen of the respective mosque and surau committees, four mosque committees had decided to reject the aid.
“We will still offer aid to the mosques that rejected it, because we do not want to be accused that we had intentionally ostracised them.”
He said they hoped to complete disbursing the aid by the end of the month once “we have finalised the appointment of contractors to carry out the necessary work.
Shabudin said he was utterly disappointed with the newspaper for running a misleading report, noting that he was surprised that the matter was raised only now, just before the Kuala Terengganu by-election.
He said the council might consult its lawyers to study the possibility of taking legal action against the newspaper and a recommendation to the Home Ministry to suspend its licence for a period of time as well as to mete out other forms of action.
“I do not think the mosque and surau committees were impatient to receive the aid.
“It could have been other quarters, which wanted to take advantage of the Kuala Terengganu by-election to blow up this issue,” he said.
