The Singapore Straits Times 28th April 2001

Despite top results, many Chinese students are rejected because of quota limits, so MCA wants changes to guarantee places for top students

By Leslie Lau in KUALA LUMPUR

THREE years ago, Ms C. S. Tan scored ten straight As in her SPM examinations, the equivalent of the GCE O-levels in Malaysia.She applied for a place in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), one of the country's top public universities but, incredibly, she failed to secure a place to study engineering.

And the Malaysia Chinese Association (MCA) blames her predicament squarely on the quota system for university placements.

'We think the quota system should be fine-tuned to guarantee university places for students with exceptional academic qualifications irrespective of their race,' MCA Youth vice-chairman Datuk Liew Yuen Keong told The Straits Times.

The party says more than 500 secondary-school students who scored between five and 10 As in the SPM examinations failed to secure places in local public universities this year.

All of them are non-bumiputras.

The authorities have explained this by saying that there are not enough places for non-bumiputras.

Under the Malaysian education system, 55 per cent of university places are reserved for bumiputras, with the rest open to the non-bumiputras.MCA Youth believes there are many Chinese students who are facing problems securing places in local universities.

It has set up a telephone hotline for students to channel their appeals through it.

Ever since the hotline started this week, there have been several calls from parents wanting to know how they can appeal on their children's behalf to the Education Ministry.

Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad has also acknowledged the problem when he pointed out recently that the government had difficulty filling up the Malay quota because their qualifications were not good enough.

He said many Chinese students were being turned away from local universities even though they had better results than the Malays.After failing to get into any public university, Ms Tan applied to Uniten, a private university owned by national power company Tenaga Nasional.

Not only did she secure a place there, she also won a full scholarship covering tuition fees, food and lodging although she will be bonded to the company for five years after graduation.

The latest examination results also shows that she has made the Dean's List at her university.

Datuk Liew says there is more competition among non-bumiputras for local university places because of the weaker economy.

'Previously, many Chinese families had the option of sending their children abroad but it has become more expensive because our currency is weaker,' he said.

He said not all Chinese families were wealthy and local universities are the only option for many.

'There is also tremendous competition for certain courses deemed to have more prospects like medicine and law,' he said.

He said the government would find it difficult to attain developed-country status if university places are denied to top achievers.