Despite being embroiled in a nationwide controversy since Wednesday over its student intake, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Utar) has yet to clarify its position over the matter and is not talking to the press.

Malaysiakini has been attempting for days to get comments from officials of the university administration, including external relations director Low Bee Eng, but to no avail.

Low's office gave replies such as "she is on leave", "she is not in", "she is at a meeting", or even "we don't know where she is".

Only Mandarin daily China Press managed to quote an unidentified Utar officer as saying that the intake was based on the examination results of the applicants regardless of race.

However, the officer refused to reveal the breakdown of the new student intake according to ethnic groups as this was "prohibited under the university regulation".

The controversy erupted on Wednesday when local Malay newspaper Utusan Malaysia reported on its front page that there was only one Malay student doing journalism among the pioneer batch of 560 students.

The news report quoted Umno Youth education bureau chairman Dr Adham Baba as questioning the commitment of Utar in recruiting students of different races.

"Utar had tried to maintain Chinese domination of the university. There was no effective campaign to attract Malay students. In fact, there was no sincerity in this at all.

"This is not a baseless allegation but it can be proven if one looks at the university's record," Adham said.

Defended by MCA leaders

Despite the strong accusation from Umno, the university made no attempt to defend itself publicly, though supportive statements came from MCA leaders over the past few days.

MCA education bureau chief Dr Ting Chew Peh said yesterday that Utar and Tunku Abdul Rahman College both of which were founded by the party practise "transparency" in admission.

However, he deflected any queries regarding the admission and said they should be forwarded to the Utar administration.

MCA vice-president Ong Ka Ting said Umno Youth was wrong in turning the Utar admission into a racial issue.