Umno and Barisan Nasional are once again abusing the media to confuse Malaysians so that they will forever vote BN into power no matter how poor their quality of governing.The latest incident involves Entrepreneur Development Minister Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz who says that Mara will continue its plan to transfer MRSM students from the two campuses in Terengganu (Besut and Dungun).
From what he says, or from what's reported on TV, Umno is trying to fool people into believing that the Terengganu government, not Mara, is to be blamed for the closure of the colleges. The truth is otherwise.
Realising that the people may 'revolt' in the next election, Umno is now twisting the story that Mara has no choice but to transfer the students to other MRSM since Terengganu government has issued notice for it to vacate the two campuses.
From what I gather, this is what happened:
- The two MRSM campuses supported by Yayasan Terengganu have a special quota — 80 percent Terengganu students, 20 percent from other states. This quota was there even before PAS took over the government from Umno.
- Mara intends to change the quota (by reducing the allocation for Terengganu students) for whatever reason.
- The Terengganu government disagrees with the proposal.
- Due to the disagreement, Mara wants to close the two MRSM campuses.
- Appeals by various quarters not to close the campuses have been rejected and Mara insists on closing them.
- Since Mara has decided to close the campuses, Terengganu government issued notice for it to vacate the campuses. The state government has other plans for the sites.
- Suddenly Nazri is telling the world that Mara has had to transfer the students to other campuses around Malaysia since they have receive the eviction notice.
It does not take much grey matter to find out who the real culprit is behind the closure of the colleges — Mara (or Umno) or the Terengganu government (or PAS)?