Deputy Education Minister Aziz Shamsuddin riled-up several Keadilan leaders today when he said the Indian community was not marginalised as he attempted to justify the admittance of only one Indian student to the Universiti Malaya medical faculty.

The incident took place at the Education Ministry in Kuala Lumpur after the deputy minister made an unexpected appearance near the entrance of the building where a delegation of Indian Keadilan leaders were speaking to reporters.

The delegation, led by party vice-president Dr Xavier Jayakumar, had earlier submitted a memorandum to Education Minister Musa Mohamad protesting the shrinking composition of Indian students at the UM faculty as compared to the 10 percent (equivalent to16 students) intake under the quota system.

"The Indians are not marginalised. It is just a feeling that people have. Many Indians enjoy better standards of living than Malays," said Aziz.

"Just see how many Indian lawyers and doctors there are," he added, evoking objections from Keadilan leaders S Manikavasagam and S Puspalingam.

The Keadilan leaders were also irked when Aziz said the university admission criteria under the university selection system was approved by the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.

When Puspalingam, who is Keadilan Bukit Bintang branch deputy chief, asked if other parties should be consulted, the deputy minister replied: "We don't (ask) other parties because they are only interested in glamourising things."

This angered the Keadilan leaders further, who retorted that Aziz should not be speaking for some racial groups and that university admission criteria cannot be determined by BN only as it involved public education institutions.

The deputy minister appeared unperturbed by the row but the fuming Keadilan Youth exco member Manikavasagam had to be restrained by his party members.

Minister 'mistaken'

Earlier, Aziz said the intake of Indian students does not comprise only those enrolled at Universiti Malaya but also those admitted to the faculties at other public universities.

"We are all adults and we should not make statements that would confuse others. Why are people looking only at UM? There may be one student at UM but there are lots of Indian students at (the medical faculties of) Universiti Putra Malaysia and Universiti Sains Malaysia," he said.

Aziz said the selection of only one Indian student under the university selection system to UM was "not shocking" when viewed in entirety with admission in other universities.

He also refuted allegations that the university selection system was not transparent and added that steps are being taken to ensure greater transparency.

Commenting on the controversy over UM's admittance of students from the privately-run Perak College of Medicine (PCM) to its selective medical faculty, Aziz said the ministry was aware of the arrangement.

He said the education minister may have been "mistaken" when Musa told a press conference two weeks ago that he had no knowledge of the UM-PCM deal.

"There are limited spaces for these students so the university cannot take more than a specific number. If they take more than that number, it might affect other students," he said, adding that PCM had contributed "sufficient facilities" to UM to cope with the increase in students.

Controversy dogged the UM medical faculty after it was revealed that 70 out of the 230 students enrolled were not selected under the university selection system but were instead admitted via the campus's twinning programme with PCM.

Allegations later surfaced that students admitted through this channel were less qualified.

'More experience'

In response to a question from Jayakumar if there is a possibility for a common university entrance examination to be implemented, Aziz said there are constraints involving such an undertaking.

The deputy minister also offered his opinion that teachers for the STPM courses are "more experienced" than those teaching matriculation.

"If I have children (of that age), I would send them to study the STPM. STPM teachers are more experienced," he said.

However, when countered by Jayakumar if this meant that matriculation teachers were low-skilled, he said the ministry is only concerned with ensuring that students "perform" irrespective of the type of pre-university examinations that they undergo.

The issue of university admission standards arose earlier this month after MIC president S Samy Vellu questioned the admission of the sole Indian Malaysian student to the UM medical faculty.

Although the education minister attributed this selection to a merit-based system (adopted since last year), critics have expressed doubt whether students can be properly ranked without a common entrance examination.