Meet the PM: Anwar fielding questions from students at UUM in Sintok. — Bernama
ALOR SETAR: The government is working to find suitable methods to help students from all races who excelled in their examinations to get places in institutes of higher learning, says Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The quota system, he said, would continue to be implemented to enable Malay and bumiputra students to balance the number of students from the community in the universities.
“If not, we will see the same disparity that occurred at Universiti Malaya in the 1960s and 1970s, where in the engineering faculty there were zero Malays, and only 12% in the medical faculty.
“There was an effort by the late Ungku (Abdul) Aziz and the ministry at the time to help the Malays so that they can better compete,” he said at the “Program Temu Anwar Kedah” at Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) here yesterday.
The late Royal Prof Ungku Abdul Aziz Ungku Abdul Hamid was the university’s then vice-chancellor.
Anwar said the government must find suitable ways to help students from all races who excelled and ensure they get places in local universities.
However, he said having the quota system did not mean that meritocracy was dead, and if there were students from among non-Malays and bumiputra who excelled, the government must find ways to give them opportunities as well.
“I agree to retain this quota programme, but we have to find another way to give opportunities to smart non-Malay, non-bumiputra children, whose results are good, so that they are not left out,” he added.
Anwar was responding to a question from a student during the programme. The student asked whether the quota system for university entrance should continue or replace by the meritocracy system.
On another issue, Anwar, who is Finance Minister, said he never ignored the roles of respective state governments in opposition-ruled states in development-related matters.
He said it would be proper for state governments to work with the Federal Government so that more development could be implemented.
“For example, in Kedah, the biggest investment is the Kulim Hi-Tech Park where most of the investment was brought in with the help of the Federal Government,” he added.
It is also the same in Terengganu, where the biggest investment in the state was from the oil and gas industry which was supervised directly by the Prime Minister through PETRONAS, he said.
About 5,000 students from universities, polytechnics and secondary schools in Kedah and Perlis attended the programme.
The dialogue session with students was moderated by celebrity and actor Fikry Ibrahim.
In the same programme, Anwar witnessed the handover of mock cheques of RM350,000 from Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd (BIMB) as contribution and RM50,000 as education tithe to UUM.
UUM Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Mohd Foad Sakdan received the mock cheques from BIMB chief executive officer Mohd Muaazam Mohamed.
