Uproar over ‘race bias’ in Malaysia public university places
When the Malaysian government announced the allocation of seats at public universities last week, it sparked uproar among ethnic Chinese and Indians. Only 19% of places were awarded to Chinese and 4% to Indian students – and even some with the highest exam scores failed to gain a place on their preferred course.
The ethnic breakdown of the Malaysian population is 23% Chinese and 7% Indian, while 60% are Malay – also known as Bumiputras, or sons of the soil – according to the most recent census.
The results prompted Jaspal Singh, treasurer general of the Malaysian Indian Congress, or MIC – which is part of the ruling National Front (Barisan Nasional) coalition – to say it was “the most unfair and biased public university intake in the history of Malaysia”.
He said some 3,000 Indians should have been given places at public universities. Instead, around 1,500 students were allocated places. Singh said the Chinese student intake had dropped from around 25% of public university enrolment in recent years to 19%.
Chief Minister of Penang state Lim Guan Eng, who is secretary general of the opposition Malaysian Democratic Action Party or DAP, which is supported by Chinese voters and backed by some Indians, said the result was a “painful injustice”.
“After 56 years of independence it is time for all political parties and the [higher education] ministry not to focus on race but on why qualified students cannot get places in public universities on merit,” Lim said in a statement on 15 July.
Lim added that depriving qualified students of places in public universities was a waste of talent and would drive away the country’s best and brightest, who would go abroad. “It will make it easier for other countries like Singapore to happily snatch away our crème de la crème,” Lim said.
Chinese predicament
Of the 41,573 public university enrolments this year, only 7,913 were Chinese Malaysians. Last year Chinese students made up 8,985 of a total enrolment of 38,549 and in 2011 around 9,457 of a total enrolment of 41,267, according to the Malaysian Chinese Association, or MCA, which is part of the Barisan coalition.
Many top scorers in terms of GPA – Grade Point Average – from the two minority groups failed to get into their preferred degree courses.
“Students with a GPA of 4.0 (perfect score) should not be given courses which they had not opted for, as they are a talented group. If these students with excellent results fail to get the course that they want, they might just take up offers from other countries like Singapore,” said MCA Education Bureau Chair Wee Ka Siong, at a press conference on 12 July.
“The hardest hit are students with a GPA of 4.0 who applied for medicine, pharmacy and dentistry and were yet not offered any place or given any course in the eight options applied for,” Wee said.
Indian figures
The MIC president, G Palanivel, who is minister for natural resources and environment, said in a press statement on 3 July that a total of 6,150 ethnic Indian students had applied for the 2013-14 public university intake.
For the first intake, 1,500 were offered places but only 892 accepted the offers. During the second intake another 350 students were made offers. Palanivel said that he did not know at that point how many had been accepted.
He said Prime Minister Najib Razak had agreed to increase the intake to 1,500, and he had sent letters of appeal “to ensure that Indian students get their 1,500 places.”
But Palanivel admitted some Indian students with a perfect cumulative GPA were unable to get into their preferred courses. Some did not even get a place at a public university.
MIC’s higher education bureau said it had received complaints from 10 students who had scored a perfect GPA but were denied a place of their choice.
Criticism of the government
Parent Action Group for Education Chair Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim told local media: “What is important is that meritocracy has to take precedence because hard work has to be rewarded. Students with a [GPA of] 4.0 should be able to get what they want – it is a perfect score.
“Something definitely has to be done about this," she said.
Political analysts believe Malay nationalists within the coalition had pressured the party to cut back on opportunities for ethnic Chinese and Indians in education and other spheres after the ruling coalition secured a majority in elections held in May.
Barisan Nasional actively tried to woo the ethnic minority vote in the run-up to the elections in order to stay in power. Education has been a key theme among the electorate. But such concessions for Chinese and Indian groups are not necessarily popular with the Malay majority, particularly in rural areas.
Singh placed the blame squarely at the door of the Education Ministry, laying into ethnically Indian Deputy Education Minister P Kamalanathan, an MIC member.
Singh said Kamalanathan had “mocked the trust” that the Indian community had placed in him, and he advised Kamalanathan not to “cover up for the Education Ministry”.
“This discrimination must stop. The majority of Indians are poor and the parents sacrifice much to educate their children,” Singh said.
“We should ensure they receive the courses of their choice and stay in Malaysia to contribute to future nation building. Instead, the Education Ministry crushes their dreams, destroys the hopes of their parents and confirms it is pursuing the most vile of policies," said Singh.
Students not accepted by public universities are forced to turn to private universities with much higher fees and few scholarships. Those who are financially better off tend to go abroad.
Ministry response
Kamalanathan said this week that some 18,222 students had failed to secure university places this year. “But we have opened a channel for them to appeal,” he told local media. He said he had received more than 100 appeals.
The deputy minister said earlier that the number of “top performers” exceeded seats available, particularly in ‘critical’ courses, mainly medicine and dentistry.
“The government is committed to providing pathways to all deserving candidates and will strive to cater to find alternatives, to make sure no student is left behind in the quest for knowledge," Kamalanathan said in a statement.
But as criticism continued to build, he tweeted on 16 July that the issue would be discussed in cabinet this week, in an attempt to find a solution.
Lim also criticised the MIC and the MCA, both part of the ruling coalition, for their “annual national obsession on race profiling”. He said the serious issue of depriving qualified students of university places was argued from a racial perspective, when it should be based on “equal opportunity, excellence and performance”.
He emphasised a need for clear, transparent criteria for public universities. "The future of our young is too important to be politicised or played about as an annual game,” Lim said
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