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| Perbadanan Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi Nasional (PTPTN) |
A coalition of Malay rights groups, led by Perkasa, today urged Putrajaya to consider allowing only Bumiputeras to be exempt from repaying their National Higher Education Fund (PTPTN) loan schemes.Extremist groups like Perkasa are one of the many reasons why 1Malaysia is always a national dream (or so-called aspiration) that will never come into reality.
They noted in their National Unity Memorandum that the majority of PTPTN borrowers exempted from repaying their loans were Chinese, and this could anger the Bumiputeras.
"The Malaysian government must take immediate action over the phenomenon of many non-Bumiputeras being exempted 100% from PTPTN, compared with the Bumiputera students," read the memorandum, which was drafted by a committee headed by Perkasa chief Datuk Ibrahim Ali.
"At the same time, the Malaysian government must study the reasons why Bumiputera students' academics are declining, compared with non-Bumiputeras.
"In this context, the Malaysian government should review whether PTPTN exemptions should be given to Bumiputeras alone, in line with Article 153 of the Federal Constitution."
Also some interesting PTPTN stats reported in the The Malay Mail Online:
In the statistics supplied by the National Unity Convention, 8,818 ethnic Chinese students were exempted from repaying their PTPTN loans as at December 31, 2011.
In comparison, 2,347 ethnic Malay and 456 ethnic Indians students were exempted.
In November last year, Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said a total of 412,245 borrowers did not service their PTPTN loans, with Malays forming the largest number of defaulters at 328,550, followed by the Chinese (55,445) and Indians (28,250).
There are currently 1.24 million PTPTN borrowers according to the latest figures.