GEORGE TOWN, April 24 — Putrajaya’s decision to maintain the 90 per cent Bumiputera quota for matriculation programmes shows that the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government has failed to move forward, DAP’s P. Ramasamy said today.

Ramasamy, who is Penang’s Deputy Chief Minister II, said it was apparent the PH government feared backlash from sections of the Malay-Muslim community with this decision.

"It appears as though the Cabinet was not prepared to take a bold decision in increasing the intake of non-Malay students particularly Indians,” he said today.

He was responding to Education Minister Maszlee Malik’s announcement earlier that the quota for the intake remains the same after he brought up the issue in a Cabinet meeting today, although the intake will be increased from 25,000 to 40,000.

Ramasamy, who is Prai assemblyman, said he was not surprised that the quota system for admission to the matriculation programme was retained.

He said the increase in student intake would mean the admission of Bumiputera students will also increase from 22,500 to 36,000.

"Despite the clamour for more non-Malay admission, they’ve only received an increase from 2,500 to 4,000 places. An addition of 1,500 students,” he said.

He said he could not determine the number of Indian students who will be admitted but believed that non-Malay PH supporters will be disappointed by this decision.

"We’ve failed to move forward. But I am not giving up the fight for a better Malaysia,” he said.

Ramasamy took flak from Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) leaders yesterday after he said on Facebook: "Bersatu despite being an ethnic Bumiputera party seems to be entrapped in the mindset of Umno, an extreme racist party.”

He was criticising Bersatu leaders for supporting Maszlee’s decision to maintain the 90 per cent Bumiputera quota for matriculation intakes.

This issue was discussed in the Cabinet today for a final decision on the quota after several other PH leaders called for the policy to be reviewed.