Analysts: Anti-UEC stand shows no reform in Umno Youth

Analysts say Umno is harping on the Unified Examination Certificate and national language issues to attract conservative Malay support.

Pakatan Harapan had promised to recognise the UEC certificate if it came to power in the May 9 polls. (Bernama pic)

KUALA LUMPUR: Analysts have warned that Umno Youth’s stand against any government move to recognise the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) shows that the wing is not headed in the right direction towards reform.

They added that continuing to harp on racial issues could make it difficult for the party to win back federal power.

Political commentator Tang Ah Chai said Umno Youth was using the UEC and national language issues in a bid to stay relevant after the party’s defeat in the May 9 general election.

“They always try capture (Malay) conservatives and rural communities by championing the issues that they think the communities will be attracted to,” he said, adding that the party did not seem to do the same with other groups.

“After their loss (in the election), they are clueless over what role they should play as the opposition. They continue to talk about the UEC, and language issues seem to be the way out,” he told FMT.

On June 9, new Umno Youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said after chairing the wing’s first executive council meeting that the move to recognise the UEC would make the education system “disorderly”.

He said this was because there were other certificates of the same level that were already recognised by the government.

Tang said raising the UEC issue again appeared to bring the wing “back to square one” in terms of its racial posturing.

He said former deputy education minister Chong Sin Woon, who was from MCA, had assured during Barisan Nasional’s (BN) rule that UEC recognition was just a step away, as Chinese groups tried to push for UEC holders to be eligible for entrance into public universities.

“But they (Umno) are telling the government now they will not tolerate (UEC) and will object until the end despite being in the previous administration,” he said.

He added that the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government must quickly resolve the matter as the coalition had promised to accord recognition to the UEC.

Meanwhile, Universiti Malaya’s Awang Azman Awang Pawi said as the opposition, Umno should focus on nation-building and engage in less politicking.

“Practise mature politics and hold talks with experts in education and the government of the day to learn about issues like UEC,” he said.

“Do not pick on issues for the sake of doing so without proper research.”

Oh Ei Sun, senior adviser for international affairs at the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute, said Umno’s main mission for the next five years did not appear to be focused on reforming the party.

Instead, he said, the party seemed to be consolidating its conservative vote bank while also trying to “pinch” some conservative PAS voters.

“And Umno Youth has traditionally been at the vanguard of such political operations,” he said, adding that Umno had lost significant support among young voters.

The UEC was created by the Chinese independent schools 45 years ago, when the government stopped financing Chinese schools and preparing examination papers for them because the school boards would not adopt Malay as the medium of instruction.

UEC holders can pursue degree courses at about 1,000 international universities and local private universities without having to attend pre-university classes.

State-owned institutions in Sarawak, Selangor and Penang have accepted the UEC as an admission qualification.

Recently, the Melaka government allowed UEC graduates to join the state’s civil service as well.

PH had said prior to the election that it would recognise the certificate if it came into power. -FMT