The Sarawak state government has agreed in principle to recognise the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) as a qualification to enter the state's civil service and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), which is a public university.

This makes it the first state in Malaysia to recognise the UEC.

Sarawak chief minister Adenan Satem has agreed to this, said Vincent Lau, the chairperson of United Chinese School Committees' Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong).

The graduates of Chinese independent schools, however, are required to get a credit in Bahasa Malaysia to enter the public service and public unversity, he told Malaysiakini .

Putrajaya was reluctant to recognise UEC as the qualification for entry into public institution, citing that the certificate issued by the Malaysian Independent Chinese Secondary Schools had failed to comply with the policies and curriculum of the national education system.

Earlier today, Lau and SUPP chairperson Sim Kui Hian told a press conference to deliver the good news to the Chinese community in Sarawak.

The state will need to conduct its 11th state election latest by June 2016, and this announcement will gain favour for BN among the Chinese community.

Cabinet meeting to formalise

According to Sim, Adenan had engaged the federal government in a discussion after he publicly announced his intention to see UEC recognised a year ago.

"Later, we (SUPP) asked the chief minister what can be done on our part to make this work," said Sim, who is also a senator.

This has prompted the state government to explore the possibility without first arriving at a consensus with Putrajaya, he said.

Thus, only Sarawakian graduates from Chinese independent schools will benefit, he said.

The state government will allocate its quota in Unimas, which is a public university governed by Putrajaya, to the Chinese independent school graduates, he said.

Sim said the state government will formalise this recognition in its cabinet meeting.

Asked if this was done to lure Chinese voters in the coming state election, Sim answered reluctantly," No need for me to talk about this."

"If you were to answer a 'yes' or 'no', people will have something to say," he said, adding what is important is that this will become a reality.

Many had claimed Sarawak BN will win nevertheless, thus the issue to please Chinese voters does not arise, he said.

MCA leader's kudos to Dong Zong

Meanwhile, Deputy Education Minister Chong Sin Woon commended Dong Zong for keeping an open attitude which led to the recognition of UEC.

"As far as I know, the discussion to recognise UEC was stuck, as the federal government had required for students to have a credit in SPM's BM subject which the previous Dong Zong leadership refused," said Chong, who is also MCA youth chief and senator.

MCA will continue to pursue Putrajaya to recognise UEC at the federal level, vowed Chong.

Chong was also puzzled by Selangor state’s decision to find a method to assist three universities to recognise UEC.

"The three institutions are catogorised as private institutions. All private universities in the country have recognised UEC.

"So, there is no need for Selangor government to find methods to recognise UEC; just do it," he said.

He was responding to Selangor executive councillor for education Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, who said the state government intended to assist Universiti Selangor (Unisel), Selangor International Islamic University College (KUIS), and Inpens International College to recognise UEC.