Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim today defended Putrajaya‘s decision to impose a 6% service tax on the tuition fee for international students, saying it was necessary to offset the rising cost of funding education.
Speaking at the “Temu Anwar” programme at Multimedia University here, Anwar said education had received the largest share of allocations in the national budget over the past two years, followed by healthcare.
“But the cost is increasingly and phenomenally exorbitant. We decided, of course, not to impose any additional burden on (local) students, particularly the poorer students.”
Anwar said international students will share a “small burden” but added that their tuition fee was still considered “one of the cheapest in the region”.
He said Malaysia currently hosts between 160,000 and 170,000 foreign students.
Separately, Anwar also touched on the case of Form 1 student Zara Qairina Mahathir, whose death in Sabah last month sparked national outrage.
He criticised the incitement of public outrage in the case, citing also the involvement of a TikTok user who falsely claimed to be a surgeon involved in Zara’s post-mortem.
“We can see how easily people are incited. If the facts are correct, then fine.
“But I heard one so-called pathology writer showed pictures, this and that, but checks found no such records.
“It was just fake, but people were already angry,” he said.
On Saturday, Utusan Malaysia reported communications minister Fahmi Fadzil as saying authorities were tracking down the TikTok user in question.
Health ministry checks found the person was not a surgeon or forensics officer. The person was also not associated with the ministry.
Zara was found unconscious at 4am on July 16 after allegedly falling from the third floor of her school’s hostel in Papar, Sabah.
She died at Queen Elizabeth I Hospital in Kota Kinabalu the following day. Her body was exhumed on Aug 9 to allow for a post-mortem, amid allegations of bullying.
Earlier today, the Attorney-General’s Chambers said several suspects believed to have bullied Zara would be charged in court. It said the decision will not affect the inquest into her death set for Sept 3.
