KUALA LUMPUR – The Higher Education Ministry (MoHE) has never discussed the issue of Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) admitting non-Bumiputera students, said minister Datuk Seri Zambry Abd Kadir.
He added that the ministry will uphold that UiTM was established under Article 1A of the UiTM Act 1976, which was drawn up in accordance with Article 153 of the Federal Constitution.
Provisions under Article 153 are meant to safeguard the special position of the Bumiputera.
“I would like to strictly reiterate that this issue was not discussed in any ministry-level meeting or at the cabinet level… and the issue was deliberately raised to incite disputes,” he said in a statement today.
“Like my statement on May 2, MoHE never discussed or allowed UiTM to be open to non-Bumiputera students, as (reported) today.
“This issue was deliberately played up by certain quarters attempting to disrupt the policies and initial objective of UiTM’s establishment, as well as causing confusion and disputes among various parties.”
Earlier, UiTM’s student representative council issued a statement urging students to protest against an appeal by the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) for UiTM to put public health interests first by temporarily opening the programme to non-Bumiputera, amid a shortage of specialists and surgeons in the field.
The student body is urging UiTM students to protest by using the #MahasiswaUiTMBantah hashtag on social media from May 14 until tomorrow and to wear black tomorrow as a sign of protest against the “agenda” to open UiTM’s gates to non-Bumiputera.
The student body said all its 214 members firmly stood by UiTM’s founding objectives as an institution for Malays, Orang Asli and the Bumiputera of Sabah and Sarawak.
UiTM and the Health Ministry separately said they would not interfere in the students’ protest by wearing black outfits to the institution.
In MMA’s proposal, its president, Dr Azizan Abdul Aziz, highlighted remarks by UiTM’s Prof Dr Raja Amin Raja Mokhtar, who reportedly said he did not believe legislative amendments were needed to admit non-Bumiputera students into UiTM’s postgraduate programme.
Raja Amin is also on the board of studies for the UiTM-IJN cardiothoracic surgery postgraduate programme.
MMA said Malaysia was facing a shortage of cardiothoracic surgeons, with some people waiting six months to a year – and some dying while waiting – for a bypass surgery at public hospitals.
It added that Malaysia’s target of having 28,000 medical specialists by 2030 would unlikely be met. – May 15, 2024
