'Turn UiTM into royal varsity to safeguard bumi access'

PARLIAMENT Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) should be turned into a “royal university (universiti di-raja)” so detractors will stop “challenging” it, an MP said.

“I suggest that UiTM is declared a royal university so its status as an institution only for the bumiputera will not be challenged (diganggu-gugat),” said Irmohizan Ibrahim (BN-Kuala Selangor).

Debating the Budget 2014, Irmohizan also mooted a special fund for bumiputera students to help the needy among them in education.

“This can be called National Bumiputera Fund and placed under the purview of the Prime Minister’s Department,” he said.

Calls to open up UiTM to non-Bumiputera students by several quarters have been criticised by Malay rights groups, who deem the varsity as the "last bastion for Malays".

A tweet purportedly by UiTM vice-chancellor Sahol Hamid (left) recently saw him purportedly labelling DAP activist and UiTM alumnus Dyana Sofia Mohd Daud a "traitor to (her) race" when she suggested that UiTM accept non-Bumiputera enrollments.

Sahol, however, later claimed his Twitter account was hacked.

Meanwhile, V Sivakumar (DAP-Batu Gajah), while debating the budget, said that despite the allocation to uplift the Indian community, the government does not appear sincere in doing so.
He added that since the appointment of P Waythamoorthy (left) as de facto deputy minister in charge of Indian affairs, none of the latter's demands have been met.

"There has been no increase of Indians in the civil service, no increase in scholarships...the only difference is the government's 'donation' of one (deputy) ministerial post (to Waythamoorthy)," he said.