I want to touch on Menteri Besar of Selangor's proposal to open up 10 per cent of the enrolment in Universiti Teknologi Mara to non-Malays. In fact, this issue should be viewed more objectively and openly instead of being politicised or turned into a racial issue.

The critics of this proposal seem to have forgotten that several years ago, it was the Cabinet which decided to grant the same quota of 10% to non-Malays in all Mara Junior Science Colleges (MRSM). As the deputy minister then (who did not sit in the Cabinet), I was made to understand that the rationale was to enhance better inter-ethnic integration.

I believe it could be based on the same principle that UiTM has in recent years been recruiting foreign students. If we can accommodate foreigners, why is it a sin to propose a 10% quota to local Malaysians of non-Malay origin to study in UiTM?

After all, like any other public-funded institutions of higher learning, UiTM is being run using tax payers' money.

~Ong Tee Keat

------

Sin Chew has a report on this issue on 16 August, 2008:

Consider Khalid’s UiTM proposal objectively, says Ong Tee Keat

THE suggestion by Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim for Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) to open 10% of its intake to other races should not be politicised and “racialised”, reported Sin Chew Daily.

MCA vice-president Datuk Ong Tee Keat said all quarters should view the matter objectively and comprehensively.

Ong said the Cabinet had even approved for the university to open its doors to 10% non-bumiputra students for the preparatory course a few years ago. He was the then Deputy Higher Education Minister.

He said the decision was meant to raise the level of harmony, understanding and unity among undergraduates of various races.

He added that in recent years, UiTM had even started accepting foreign students.

“If we can accept foreign students, why should the thinking of extending 10% of intake to non-bumiputra students be seen as an iniquity?” he wrote in his blog, www.ongteekeat.net.