University of burden

The Swinburne university campus in Kuching is becoming a costly place to study, shattering the hopes of local students.

KUCHING: Swinburne University of Technology’s campus here, a partnership between Australia and the state government, has come under fire for putting a heavy financial burden on students and staff.

“It started to collect parking fee for vehicles parked within the university’s compound since the beginning of the year,” said Wong King Wei, the newly elected Padungan assemblyman.

“The parking fee was RM1 per hour and upon protest of the students and me, the management decided to maintain the hourly rate but fixed a maximum rate of RM4 per day,” he told the State Legislative Assembly yesterday.

Wong said that at one time, Sarawakians were hoping that with the involvement of the state government in establishing a university in Kuching, the locals would get good quality education at a reasonable price.

“Sad to say, the state government has proven us all wrong. The tuition fee of the university has kept increasing since its establishment in 2000.

“The tuition fee for a student doing an engineering course can reach more than RM10,000 per semester and it will be increasing from next year with a fix percentage,” he said.

Furthermore, Wong claimed, the collection of parking fee had been contracted to a “Barisan National (BN) crony company”, namely Kuching City Parking System Sdn Bhd.

“Where is ‘rakyat didahulukan’ (people first), if the government ‘mendahului’ (prioritises) making profits and ‘mendahului’ a crony company?” he asked.

On the issue of electricity, Wong said Sarawak had the Batang Ai and Bakun hydro electric dams, and coal-power plants, but many Sarawakians were still living in darkness, especially Dayaks staying in longhouses.

“Having electricity and treated water supply seems to be too luxurious for them,” he said, pointing out that Sarawak would be celebrating its 50th anniversary in Malaysia in 2013 while BN would be celebrating 50 years of having ruled the state.

“However, it is a shame for BN for failing to provide the basic needs of the people. The government is ignoring them. The state is wealthy, the leaders are wealthy but the people are poor,” he said.