Issues pertaining to education should only be left to educationists or qualified people, and not something to be used by politicians to gain mileage, said PAS central education bureau chief Dr Hasan Ali.

Hasan noted that the whole education system in Malaysia has now turned upside down "because all the decisions were made by politicians".

"For instance, the Prime Minister (Dr Mahathir Mohamad) recently said he wanted to get feedback from the public on the re-introduction of English medium schools, but even before the public could provide feedback, the Umno supreme council had come up with a decision during its meeting," Hasan told malaysiakini today.

He said he was shocked that the decision had been made (by Umno), and not the education ministry.

"How many of them in the Umno supreme council are qualified educationists to make such a major decision?" he queried.

Hasan, who is also PAS vice-president, added that the same goes to the National Education Policy which now sees "a serious imbalance" in the number of students by race in institutes of higher learning.

"As a result, this will endanger the country in the long run due to an imbalance in the standard of living among races... this appears [to have the effect of ] a time bomb in our country," he said.

System being challenged

Hasan was responding to Mahathir's statement that the government will continue with the meritocracy system of university intake, although the transparency and quality of the system have been challenged by many quarters.

Yesterday, the prime minister said non-bumiputras should not make a fuss about the meritocracy issue, which saw qualified bumiputras surpass the 55 percent quota allocated to them before.

Mahathir said that in actual fact, the number of bumiputra students pursuing higher education is very low compared to their non-bumiputra counterparts who can afford to study at private universities in the country and abroad.

Era College principal Dr Kua Kia Soong disagreed with Mahathir, saying that "it is invalid to compare the IPTS (local private universities) with the IPTA (public universities).

"The IPTA is run by taxpayers' money, and therefore the question of 'fairness and quality' can be brought into the picture by members of the public," he stressed.

Kua urged the government to overcome discrepancies under the meritocracy system to ensure justice for all.

Second chance

Meanwhile, DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang reiterated that immediate action should be taken to ensure that the 31,572 students who actually qualified, but could not get place in IPTA to be given a second chance.

The figure consists of 24,321 bumiputras, Chinese (4,280) and Indians (2,431). It does not include diploma holders who are totally left out under the merit selection system.

Lim asked the government to immediately create another 12,000 places in IPTA to cater to these students

The National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students (PKPIM) secretary-general, Khairul Ariffin Mohd Munir, urged the government to find means to close the gap on access to higher education between bumiputra and non-bumiputra.

"The low number of bumiputra students in the private universities and colleges, as well as overseas, due to financial constraints may produce an adverse effect to the country in future," he said.

Yesterday, Mahathir disclosed that there are only 800 bumiputra students who depend on government financial assistance, out of 17,000 Malaysian students who are currently studying in the United States.