Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy has revealed that so far five qualified non-bumiputra students from Penang have failed to make it to local public universities despite being top scorers.

Ramasamy said this was “the tip of the iceberg” as there may be more cases of students in a similar plight who have yet to approach his office for help.

The students who did approach him, he added, were two Chinese Malaysians with 4As in STPM, where one of them had applied for Medicine but was not offered a place. Another applied for Pharmacy but was offered Architectural Science in Universiti Malaya instead.

NONE Ramasamy ( left ) said three other Matriculation students - one Chinese Malaysian and two Indian Malaysians - scored a 4.0 CGPA but were either not offered a place or given a course for which they had not applied.

Out of the three students, one did not get an offer to enter a public university, another applied to do Chemistry but was given Industrial Biology, while another applied for Medicine but was instead offered to do Medical Engineering.

Both offers were for places in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

“All we can do is console the students and the parents. They were in tears when they came to my office. They are not rich families, but the students did very well, what has happened to them is totally unjust,” Ramasamy told reporters in Komtar today.

Ramasamy, who head the state human resources, education and science and technology portfolio, said his office would help the students appeal to the Education Ministry. They have up to Sunday to do so.

“Our education system is sick! Something is obviously very wrong with it!” he exclaimed.

“A year back, there were top students who were not given scholarships, this year, they are not given places. I suppose next year, some top students will not be allowed to apply for a place or the courses they want,” claimed Ramasamy.

‘Technical error?’

“Is this a technical error? That is a stupid reason and very demeaning. They failed in the interview, English competency or aptitude test? What nonsense! This is all rubbish! They are straight As students, they do not need all these,” he added.

Ramasamy’s dramatic response refers to the issue which has been hotly debated since P Kamalanathan, who is a newly-appointed MIC deputy minister, got a tongue-lashing over the poor intake of Indian students in public universities.

This was followed by deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department P Waythamoorthy, who questioned the transparency of the selection process in varsities, saying its opaqueness caused “distrust among non-bumiputera students”.

The former UKM lecturer said although he does not wish to view the matter from a racial perspective, however, “This is racism”, he insisted.

He even questioned if this is Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s way of punishing the non-Malays for throwing their support behind Pakatan Rakyat in the May 5 general election.

“He (Najib) asks the students to appeal. What wrong have they done? Such students are asked to appeal every year, and then the government offers them a place or gives them scholarships, and they would all be grateful again,” added the Prai assemblyperson.

Ramasamy then condemned Deputy Education Minister Kamalanathan for not doing much to help, condemning him as “Umno’s mouthpiece”.

He also took a swipe at Gerakan and MCA, whose national Youth chief Wee Ka Siong was formerly education deputy minister, for being “shameless” and unable to help the affected students except to ask them to appeal their situation.