GEORGE TOWN, April 23 — Penang Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) has voiced its support for the Education Ministry’s decision to maintain the intake policy of 90 per cent Bumiputera students and 10 per cent non-Bumiputera students in government matriculation programmes.
Penang Bersatu Information Chief Khaliq Mehtab Mohd Ishaq said Bersatu’s support for this policy does not mean the party’s policies are similar to that of Umno.
“We supported this policy as we believe that Malays still need government assistance in terms of educational provisions,” he said in a statement issued today.
Khaliq expressed his regret at Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P. Ramasamy’s statement yesterday equating Bersatu with Umno for supporting a policy left by the former Barisan Nasional (BN) government.
“His shallow statement did not hold true to the Pakatan Harapan consensus,” he said.
He said the Perai assemblyman, as a senior politician, should understand Bersatu’s political struggle within PH in this New Malaysia era.
“Bersatu, together with other PH components, are working to restore the unity of the people due to the negative effects on race and religion left by the former government,” he said.
Khaliq said Ramasamy must be more sensitive and careful with his statement as he had “hurt the feelings” of Bersatu leaders by equating the party’s struggles with that of its political foe, Umno.
The Bertam assemblyman also demanded Ramasamy withdraw his statement.
Yesterday, Ramasamy, in his Facebook posting, said “Bersatu despite being an ethnic Bumiputera party seems to be entrapped in the mindset of Umno, an extreme racist party.”
He went on to say that as part of PH, Bersatu should go beyond Umno or PAS.
“It does not do good for the party to hold to decisions made by Umno when the latter was in power,” he said.
He said there was a need to go beyond the 90:10 formula for the matriculation intake policy even though it is an existing formula.
“Clinging to old methods does not do good for Bersatu and any other component parties in PH,”
“Even if the current ratio of 90:10 is adopted, the numbers might not match,” he said.
Ramasamy said the current intake ratio on the basis of assigning importance to core subjects, inclusion of marks assigned to extracurricular activities and subjected to B40 criteria might affect the intake of Chinese and Indian students.
“I hope the Cabinet sees the flaws in admission procedures to adopt a more enlightened policy on the admission of non-Malay students,” he said.
Ramasamy was responding Bersatu information chief Mohd Radzi Mohd Jidin’s statement supporting the 90:10 ratio policy for government matriculation programmes.
