KUALA LUMPUR – Universiti Teknologi Mara’s (UiTM) existing recruitment policy is permanent and there have been no discussions by the university senate or executive council about opening admission to non-Bumiputera students.
In a statement, UiTM vice-chancellor and senate chairman Prof Datuk Shahrin Sahib called on students to use their time to study and gain as much knowledge as possible to prepare for the future.
He added that UiTM firmly adheres to Clause 1A of the UiTM Act 1976, which was established pursuant to and in accordance with the provisions of Article 153 of the Federal Constitution.
Earlier, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Zambry Abd Kadir said that the issue of UiTM admitting non-Bumiputera students was never discussed in the cabinet or the ministry.
“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.
Also, 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.
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. – May 15, 2024
