Najib: Merit-based public university intake victimises Indians

The Indian community will become victims if the government allows full meritocracy in the student intake at public universities, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said.

The meritocracy, which introduced 15 years ago by the then prime minister (Dr Mahathir Mohamad), did not help the Indian community, Najib said when officiating the 25th annual general assembly of the Indian Progressive Front in Serdang today.

However, he did not name Mahathir during his speech.

Mahathir was reported to have replaced the racial quota system in public university intake with meritocracy in 2002, in order to spur healthy competition among Malay students.

The intake of Indian students into the tertiary education system was considerably low, prompting the government to allocate matriculation seats to 1,500 Indian students, which had never happened before, Najib said.

"Recently, I instructed 700 additional seats to be given to Indian students at the higher learning institutions," he added.

"If we are to allow the meritocracy (system) to operate fully, then the Indian community will become victims.

"The meritocracy (system) was introduced before my time, during the era of another (prime minister)," he said.

Only three percent or four percent of the students in public universities were Indians then, with the intake based on full meritocracy, instead of the current seven percent, Najib added.

Opposition does not appreciate Indians

Turning his gun at Pakatan Harapan, Najib said the opposition did not appreciate the role of the Indian community and it thus failed to come up with its own Indian blueprint.

"We look at the opposition's structure, it has three bosses. How can a coalition operate when they have three voices ?" he asked.

"It makes no sense at all. The fact is, they do not have a common understanding and ideology, but just a common aim to topple BN.

"This can be dangerous because an unstable political coalition can be detrimental to the country and people," Najib added.

Countries that suffer because of political instability will end up in chaos, internal conflicts and internal fights.

"This is what we should defend. A marriage of convenience is dangerous to the country. They (the opposition) do not share the common ideology, thus they cannot bring stability to Malaysia," he said.

At the AGM, IPF president M Sambanthan (photo) pledged 'nambikei' (confidence) in Najib's leadership and vowed to support the BN candidates, including those from MIC, in the coming general election.

He urged Najib to accept IPF, which has made the same request in the past 27 years, to be a BN member.

MIC has objected strongly to the inclusion of IPF into the ruling coalition.

Sambanthan, who is also a senator, asked Najib to consider fielding an IFP leader as a BN candidate in the coming general election.

He also urged Najib to add an extra public holiday for Deepavali celebration.

However, Najib did not respond directly to these requests.

On IPF's complaint that some BN parties declined to cooperate with the IPF, despite it being a BN-friendly party, Najib said he would discuss this with the BN leaders.

"This is not the fault of the BN chairperson (me). I need the cooperation from others so IPF will be recognised more in all levels," he said.- Mkini