KUALA LUMPUR, March 30 ― Opposition lawmaker Nurul Izzah Anwar questioned today the federal government’s rationale to decrease scholarship funding this year if it believed higher education could make Malaysians more economically resilient.

The Lembah Pantai MP was responding to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s remarks in the Dewan Rakyat earlier when he said better education was key to help Malaysians cope with the pressures of high living costs.

“What is the government's rationale when the first thing slashed in the Budget was scholarships.

“In the year 2014, from the bottom 40, only 1.4 per cent are graduates. That says a lot,” she told a press conference in the Parliament lobby.

Nurul Izzah was referring to the Public Service Department’s reduction in (PSD) scholarship awards this year in the revised Budget, which the government said has given it savings amounting to RM240 million.

The PKR vice-president urged the government to instead cut down on “unnecessary” programmes like the national service programme and divert those funds towards education.

“The government needs to stop wasteful programmes like the PLKN and instead allocate the funds for bursary scholarship students to be given the best education,” she said, using the Malay abbreviation for the national service programme.

She also said the government should focus on preventing the emigration of talented Malaysians by providing sufficient resources instead of promoting tax reductions to bring back talent from overseas.

“Better for us to invest before they leave then lure them back. The cost to the economy, to reduce income tax for those who have left the country is a lot,” Nurul Izzah said. 

Najib earlier said Malaysians who have higher academic qualifications are unlikely to struggle with higher living costs.

He told the Dewan Rakyat that most Malaysians struggling now is because they only have formal schooling up to SPM or Form Five at most and lacked skills that could land them better-paying jobs.