LET me put my cards on the table – All my life, I have never been a supporter of the MCA.
For one thing, I don’t support mono-ethnic political parties and their record since Independence has shown that they are led by the Chinese elite who have profited from being in the ruling coalition and compromised many of our human rights.
Since Operation Lalang in 1987, the MCA-owned mainstream press has never allowed my writings to be aired in their media organs.
TAR College a quid pro quo for Merdeka University
In 1967, after the announcement by then Education Minister Mohd Khir Johari that students intending to further their studies overseas (including Nanyang University in Singapore) had to have an SPM credit in Bahasa Malaysia, the Chinese Education Movement decided to start a ‘Merdeka University’ as a tertiary institution to provide affordable education for the less privileged.
Despite huge support, the project failed as it was rejected by the Government. It was taken to the highest court but that appeal also failed and the rest is history.
Two years later Tunku Abdul Rahman (TAR) College was initiated by MCA and it was approved by the government as a quid pro quo for rejecting Merdeka University and a sop for the Chinese community as there was dire shortage of tertiary education institutions for poor and lower middle-class families from the Chinese community.
The college was set up not only with the efforts of MCA but also donations from the Chinese community and Government grants. The college expanded impressively from then on and achieved university status in 2013 while receiving various academic awards. Its alumni stand at 200,000!
As the Principal of New Era College from 2000 to 2008 I know what it means for the less well-off to have a chance at tertiary education. I also have many friends and relatives who have benefited from a TAR College and University education.
These include several DAP leaders, as well as Malay and Indian professionals. Its multi-ethnic enrolment policy is to be lauded despite the fact that the MCA is a mono-ethnic party.
Thus, on this issue of grants for TARUC, my sentiments are the same as those DAP MPs who, in November 2017 questioned the lack of funding for TARUC during the ministry’s budget 2018 wrap in the Dewan Rakyat.
The Higher Education Ministry subsequently clarified that RM30 million had been set aside for the Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TARUC) in 2018. “For the year 2018, the allocation was not included in the ministry’s operational expenditure budget, but under the ministry’s management sector”.
So what has changed since 2017?
Now Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng has slashed funds for the two UTAR and TARUC, providing a RM5.5mil development fund for UTAR and TAR UC but no matching grant, insisting that MCA breaks off ties with Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) and Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TAR UC) before the government provides more allocation for the two institutions.
“I would advise that next year, we will consider (more allocations) but we want to be sure that there is a clear separation between education and politics. Both UTAR and TAR UC must not be owned by MCA,” said Lim in his winding-up speech for his ministry on Budget 2019.
As a former College Principal, I know that such matching grants are vital for ensuring lower student fees at both institutions and so, benefit the less well-off.
So, what has changed since DAP MPs objected to funds for TARUC and UTAR being cut in 2017? Haven’t these institutions been run in the same manner since they started in the sixties?
Has the Finance Minister discovered some devious changes in these education institutions since GE14? Has he consulted his DAP leaders who have been graduates of TARUC and UTAR to find out if there are complaints of political meddling by the MCA? If he has not received any such complaints, then his curtailment of grants to the two institutions is plain meanness.
Political correctness and statesmanship
If the Finance Minister really believes in political correctness, he should cut all grants to all educational institutions that practice racism and racial discrimination. Now that’s being truly principled and meets the conditions of ICERD that the DAP supports.
It’s time the PH leaders focus on the big picture and stop taking the old opposition stance when the MCA only has one MP in Parliament. If TARUC and UTAR are contributing toward helping the less well-off gain a degree and a better life, why put obstacles in their way? PH should be trying to outdo the BN by providing more assistance to all tertiary institutions that are contributing to our nation’s economy and educational progress, not cutting their grants that had been provided by the BN all these years.
To enable our less well-off Malaysian students the opportunity to access affordable tertiary education, I would hope that PH leaders learn to be statesmen rather than politicians. As James Freeman Clarke has said, “The difference between a politician and a statesman is that a politician thinks about the next election while the statesman thinks about the next generation.”
Hunter Thompson was more brutal:
“The main problem in any democracy is that crowd-pleasers are generally brainless swine who can go out on a stage & whup their supporters into an orgiastic frenzy—then go back to the office & sell every one of the poor bastards down the tube for a nickel apiece.”
Kua Kia Soong is adviser to Suaram. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
