Protest rally against SPM cap postponed

The Federation of Malaysian Indians Organisation (Prima) today postponed a protest rally against the capping of SPM examination subjects to Feb 7 next year.

The protest was initially scheduled to be held on Dec 28 at the Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur.

Speaking at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today, Prima president A Rajaretinam, however, warned that the decision to postpone the protest should not be construed as Prima backing down.

"The postponement was made to allow the Education Ministry time to review its decision to cap the SPM examination subjects at 10," he said.

"The protest will go on as planned if our concerns are not addressed to our satisfaction. Don't push us," he said, adding that Indian support for BN will erode if the issue is ignored.

Prima is one of many Indian NGOs against the government's plan to cap SPM subjects at 10. It wants students to be allowed to take 12 subjects instead, and the best 10 considered.

Utusan protest will go on

Prima is also to protest Utusan Malaysia 's usage of the derogatory term 'keling' to label Indians in a recent commentary.

Rajaretinam confirmed that the protest would go ahead against the Umno-owned daily even if the Education Ministry accedes to their demands on the SPM subjects.

The Prima president was among several speakers who explained the downside to capping SPM subjects at a forum in Bangunan Peladang in Petaling Jaya earlier this month.

The government came up with the idea as a solution to resolve scholarship application issues but Rajaretinam questioned the lack of transparency in the marking of SPM subjects papers.

He called for the marks, along with the cumulative grade per average and grades, to be shown in the results to ensure transparency.

On another matter, Rajaretinam said that Prima would start a campaign soon to increase student intake in Tamil schools.