UiTM, a legal social contract – Rahmat Mohamad and Mohd Hazmi Mohd Rusli

We need to constantly remind ourselves how our great leaders managed this country in the early years where wealth need to be managed well, where in education sector it allows not only the main stream education to flourish without undermining or putting a ban on vernacular schools. In the same breath the government understood the need to help and nurture those who are deprived of education especially tertiary education.

Hence, the idea of establishing Institut Teknologi Mara (ITM) is to help and assist those rural Bumiputera to compete with their fellow Malaysian to get the necessary training and skills and then serve the blue collar employment. ITM has done a good job in creating mid level professionals particularly among bumiputras. Many are employed in the 80s in financial and banking institutions without any complaints from their employer. At the same time other ethnic-based tertiary institutions were created to serve the growing need of the industry.

Lately, ITM, or UiTM as it is now popularly known, is under attack by a number of parties claiming it to be an inferior institution, producing inferior-quality graduates. There have also been calls to open up UiTM to non-bumiputeras. What is the public expectation of UiTM?

UiTM and the building of modern Malaysia

As the country progresses there is a need to evaluate the function and role of tertiary education. The 90s saw the escalation of higher education in Malaysia. First, the role of public universities have been expanded not just to serve the need of employment and industry but to enhance the industry to be innovative as Malaysia aspired to be a fully developed country by 2020. The shift to be a university in producing graduates for the market has caused challenges to most public universities. UiTM is not in the league to become a full-fledge research university. It has one objective; that is to produce a quality professional graduate that can compete in the job market.

While it is true that UiTM only admits bumiputera students, bear in mind that they are not just Malays but of bumiputra status from Sabah and Sarawak too. Most of the bumiputera students admitted to UiTM is based on meritocracy. Apart from the mainstream programs offered to bumiputera, UiTM has been offering matriculations programs to non-bumiputera students under their International Education College (INTEC) programs. To date, UiTM has been successful in building the nation’s human resource and creating professionals particularly among bumiputeras.

A main question arises – is UiTM a racist establishment?

UiTM – a legal social contract

Article 153 of the Federal Constitution is a testament of a recognised social contract between all the races endorsed by the British Government before Malaya gained its independence in 1957. If not for this social contract, the Chinese and Indians immigrants (as they were then described) would not be acknowledged as citizens of the independent Malaya in the first place. This would be the scenario had the Malay rulers and the Malays decided to remain under British protection without pressing for the independence of the Federation of Malaya. When Brunei was invited to join Malaysia in 1963, Sultan Omar Ali of Brunei refrained from doing so as that move would undermine the sultanate’s sovereignty and integrity.

Clinging to the hope that the British would eventually grant independence to its colonies and protectorates after the end of World War II as agreed in the Atlantic Charter 1941, Sultan Omar did not press for independence like Malayans did. Therefore, the British did not put a requirement for the Malays in Brunei to accept the Chinese and Indians as citizens of Brunei as a pre-requisite for independence. Until now, most Chinese in Brunei hold permanent residents status and remain stateless even though their ancestors have been residing in Brunei for generations.

Things were different in Malaya at that time; the Malays were so looking forward for independence. As the British required the Malays to accept the Chinese and Indians as Malayan citizens, the Malays then resorted to the social contract. By granting over 1 million Chinese and Indians as citizens of the newly independent Malaya, the special Malay rights were in return acknowledged by the non-Malays.

The Reid Commission having considered the social and economic position of the Malays at time agreed to incorporate Article 153 as a binding agreement that the Malays need to be protected and was deprived of economic advantage from other races during the British colonialism in Malaya. When it was introduced as an important provision in the Constitution there was no protest or formal resentment of other races and it was understood to be a legitimate provision in the highest law of the land. UiTM is part of those special rights of the Malays.

Now, that Chinese and the Indian communities have been accepted in perpetuity as Malaysians, a right that was generously given by the Malays, why are there voices from a small fraction of the non-Malay communities calling for the special Malay rights, as protected in the Federal Constitution, to be removed?

UiTM – a racist institution

To begin with, Malaysia is not a State Party to the United Nations International Convention on International Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Contrary to the popular belief that the existence of UiTM is in contravention with the Convention, Article 1.4 of the Convention provides:

‘special measures taken for the sole purpose of securing adequate advancement of certain racial or ethnic groups or individuals requiring such protection as may be necessary in order to ensure such groups or individuals equal enjoyment or exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms shall not be deemed racial discrimination…’

Therefore, the existence of UiTM is not in contravention with this convention endorsed by the United Nations (UN). Furthermore, UiTM is only enforcing special measures that the Government has taken for the sole purpose of securing adequate advancement of the Malays/bumiputras requiring such protection and this, according to the UN should not be perceived as promoting racial discrimination.

The way forward

Malaysia is a unique country where people of different races live in harmony. This is achieved when each citizen learn to respect each other. Malaya is now Malaysia and the Chinese and the Indian communities are no longer immigrants. The Malays/Bumiputera have to accept this fact and respect their fellow non-Malays as citizens. The remarks made by certain ultra-Malay groups against the non-Malays that they are pendatang (immigrants) are uncalled for.

In return, the non-Malays should respect the special rights of the Malays/bumiputras as enshrined in the constitution. Without these special rights accorded to the Malays, the non-Malays would end up stateless.

UiTM is an integral part of the special Malay rights and has, ever since its legal establishment lifted up the socio-economic status of the Malays/Bumiputra. As explained earlier, it is not a racist institution. As much as the Chinese and the Indian communities wanting to preserve the vernacular school systems, the same goes for the Malays/Bumiputra with regards to UiTM.

Unlike Malaysia’s immediate neighbours where the minority communities were forced to leave their languages and subscribe only to the national language, the Malay-led Malaysian government had never imposed this unto the Chinese and the Indian communities. Therefore, if the Malays/Bumiputra respect the rights of the non-Malays, why can’t the Malays/Bumiputra expect the same?

UiTM has also been orally victimised by minority groups alleging it to produce inferior-standard graduates. How could this be true when there are non-Malays calling for UiTM to be opened for all? UiTM is obviously not an inferior university as it has over the years, produced prominent lawyers, professional scientists, members of parliaments and cabinet ministers.

May UiTM prosper continuously with our beloved nation Malaysia.

*Rahmat Mohamad is a professor of law at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) and secretary general of the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization (AALCO), New Delhi, India. Mohd Hazmi Mohd Rusli is an honorary post-doctorate fellow at the University of Wollongong, Australia.