Lawyers for Liberty has slammed the government's justification to keep Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) closed to non-bumiputera students.
Its director Zaid Malek said Higher Education Minister Zambry Abd Kadir's move to cite a Bumiputera Economic Congress report which noted the socioeconomic gap with non-bumiputera to justify the decision was "absurd, unreasonable and unconstitutional”.
"It is unreasonable and absurd that the government is basing this decision on a supposed 'report' issued by the so-called Bumiputera Economic Congress. The race-based congress cannot be said to be objective or impartial.
"The methodology, if any, employed in arriving at its findings is tainted by the lack of racial inclusivity, intersectionality and the very obvious self-interest of those involved. It is well-known that its purposes were political in nature," Zaid said in a statement today.
Yesterday, Zambry told the Parliament that there was a need to gatekeep UiTM entry only for bumiputera as the report from the Bumiputera Economic Congress in 2024 by the Economy Ministry shows that there is still an economic gap involving bumiputera in terms of the average monthly income, corporate equity holdings, poverty rate, production of skilled workforce and professional qualifications.
As a workaround, Zambry said that Universiti Malaya (UM) would be offering cardiothoracic surgery postgraduate programmes to the non-bumiputera starting October, followed by other universities.
Akin to apartheid
Elaborating, Zaid said that Zambry's announcement seemed to contrast Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's pledge in an interview with CNBC last August that he would extend affirmative action from being race-based to need-based.
"The larger issue of the constitutionality of UiTM being exclusively for the bumiputera remains unresolved. This is no small matter. It is a national shame that Malaysia still maintains racially-exclusive public institutions, 67 years after independence.
"Let us be clear that nothing in Article 153 (of the Federal Constitution) permits the establishment of a racially exclusive university in Malaysia. Article 153 only provides for a reasonable proportion of educational privileges to be reserved for Malays and the natives of Sabah and Sarawak.
"Hence, excluding non-bumiputeras from enrolling in UiTM is unconstitutional, as it breaches the stipulations of the said provision itself, that the legitimate interest of other communities to be considered and that any reservations made for bumiputera to be reasonably proportionate with that interest," he added, further likening UiTM's exclusivity policy to the apartheid system,” he stated.
Zaid then stressed that there was no justification available for the government to maintain UiTM as exclusively for bumiputera, calling it a breach of the Federal Constitution.
"We thus urge the government to immediately address the unconstitutionality of UiTM’s bumiputera exclusive policy and take immediate steps to ensure that it complies with article 153 of the Federal Constitution.
“The opportunities that non-bumiputera are deprived of due to UiTM’s unconstitutional exclusive policy must not continue to blight our country and its future any further,” Zaid said. - Mkini
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