faulker059

Ed.: The following is an article we received written by a former student of law at Universiti Teknologi Mara. When Najib proposed to open scholarship opportunities to all top scorers, particularly 9A’s and above, I saluted the move and thought nothing more of the matter. A politician buckling to popular tit-bits is nothing new and at least he’s heading in the right direction. However, it irked me as the usual Malay-rights groups, the Perkasa-led Malay Consultative Council (MPM) responded to it with “constructive” criticisms, claiming that it should instead reflect 67% of the Malay community in Malaysia. My response to this is this: firstly, Professor Datuk Dr Kamarudin Kachar, not all 67% are Malaysian Malays. Some of them are actually assimilated Indonesians whose parents holds red MyKads. Many Malaysians are denied opportunities on the fallacy that they are of the wrong ethnicity and that they are less likely to be “loyal” to Malaysia. Instead, as long as you are a “Malay,” “imported...

I'm not asking this question rhetorically. Is it possible for a university that restricts its student to intake to members of one community be compatible with the ideals and even a definition of a university? Can such a university aspire to be a 'world-class' university? Will opening 10% of places in such a university to students of other races change the underlying structure and founding philosophy of such a university? In many ways, I don't blame this UiTM student leader featured in this BBC video for speaking his views. My sense is that he is a produce of the environment in which he is studying in (perhaps aided by his VC who is a regular BTN speaker). But it is a sad indictment on what some students in Malaysia think universities are for - an instrument of social policy rather than a place for expanding one's mind and learning new ideas.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the wife of our 6th Prime Minister, Datin Seri Rosmah, for receiving an Honorary Doctorate from UiTM in recognition of her contribution towards early education. "In his speech, vice-chancellor Datuk Seri Prof Dr Ibrahim Abu Shah said Rosmah’s diligence towards propagating early education had resulted in the formulation and formalisation of policies in the area. He said Rosmah had launched the Permata Project to raise the quality of early education programmes and to make it available to more children, especially those in the rural areas, through the setting-up of Permata centres nationwide."