A DAP MP has urged MCA president Wee Ka Siong to apologise for claiming that an influx of students from China was limiting opportunities for local students to enter Malaysian public universities.
Following higher education minister Zambry Abdul Kadir’s denial of the claim, Ipoh Timor MP Howard Lee said Wee must apologise to all public universities if he cannot substantiate his claim made in the Dewan Rakyat.
He accused the Ayer Hitam MP of trying to portray himself as a hero for the Malaysian Chinese community.
Lee said there were a total of 41,176 Malaysian Chinese students in public universities across the country, compared with 7,930 Chinese national students, although he did not state the source of these figures.
“Do we want to provide more space for Malaysians in our public universities? Absolutely. Are 41,176 Malaysian Chinese undergraduates enough? Certainly not.
“It will never be enough till the day we achieve universal and free public higher education – and we are still a long way from having that fiscal capacity.
“In reality, universal free higher education remains both a sustainable development goal and a long-term vision, but DAP and Pakatan Harapan remain committed to working towards it,” he said in a statement.
Lee also said the intake of foreign students was a key criteria in global university rankings, and that taking in fewer of them would deprive Malaysian undergraduates from better-ranked higher education institutions.
He accused Wee of trying to derail the unity government’s efforts and undermine its credibility.
“As a senior politician and the leader of one of our 18 parties in government, his disingenuous attacks on the government are more deceitful than those coming from opposition parties,” he said.
Wee had claimed that more students from China were gaining admission into public universities, compared with Malaysians because the Chinese could afford it.
Zambry said this was not true and that the ministry had never sacrificed local student quotas to make room for international students for the sake of greater profits.
MCA vice-president Tan Teik Cheng, however, urged Zambry to furnish the data on the admissions to disprove Wee’s claim.
