SUPP Youth says not concerned with Maszlee’s resignation, urges govt to be fair to non-Bumiputera

KUCHING, Jan 3 — Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Youth chief Michael Tiang today said he is not concerned about the resignation of Maszlee Malik as education minister.

He said the question of who will be replacing Maszlee is also not a concern.

“My real concern is that the Education Ministry has not treated the non-Bumiputera communities fairly under the policies of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal government,” Tiang, who is also the political secretary to the chief minister, said when asked to comment on Maszlee’s resignation.

He cited the government’s failure to fulfil PH’s promise to give recognition to the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) from Independent Chinese schools and the 10 per cent quota for non-Bumiputera applicants for Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) as examples of the non-Bumiputera communities being unfairly treated.

He said PH, in its election manifesto for the 14th general election in 2018, had promised to recognise UEC and allocate a 10 per cent quota for non-Bumiputera students to study at UiTM.

Tiang said the ministry must have the moral courage to rectify the unfairness under the New Malaysia notion.

“I would also like to remind the ministry that the non-Bumiputera communities are also the taxpayers and their education needs should be taken into consideration,” he said.

“Similarly, the dilapidated schools in Sarawak should also receive the full attention of the ministry with sufficient funding for repair work and upgrading,” he said, reminding Putrajaya that Sarawak is the biggest contributor to the national coffers from its oil and gas revenue.

He said students from different states in Malaysia should all enjoy equal access to quality education as well as be assured of the optimal conditions of their schools.

Yesterday, Maszlee announced his resignation as the education minister on the advice of Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, after serving for 20 months.