The Pakatan Harapan Youth's proposal for the National Higher Education Fund (PTPTN) loan recipients to begin repaying only after they are earning above RM4,000 a month do not appear to resonate with most Malaysians interviewed.

A straw poll of two dozen people at a popular shopping mall in Petaling Jaya showed that many respondents were concerned that the proposal would make borrowers irresponsible. 

According to lawyer Damien Fernandez, 55, the sense of responsibility comes first and affordability second. 

"If I owe someone money, it is my duty to pay him off accordingly. Once you start earning, whatever the amount is, there is a certain portion that must go to settle your liabilities.

"You cut the coat according to the cloth," he told Malaysiakini when approached. 

Similarly, health consultant Trace Lai, 34, said youths must learn that borrowing means having to pay back.

"It doesn't matter whether your salary is above or below RM4,000. It is your responsibility," she said.

Tunku Shazuddin Tunku Sallehuddin, 47, recalled how he paid off his Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) student loan when he was earning a mere RM1,800 as a fresh graduate.

"This (RM4,000 salary threshold) will make millennials more irresponsible.

"They will take what the country has given them for granted. If you go to other countries, students need to pay their student loans like bank loans," said Tunku Shazuddin, who is self-employed.

Even Luqman Haqim, a 22-year-old student took a PTPTN loan and has yet to start work, disagreed with the proposal, saying it was only fair for borrowers to pay back accordingly, as PTPTN already offers flexibility in repayment.

'Will encourage repayment'

However, there are some who believe that Harapan Youth's proposal does have merits because many fresh graduates simply cannot afford to repay the loans.

Siti Fadhlin Rosdan, 22, who is also a student who borrowed from PTPTN, believed that the proposed RM4,000 threshold was "reasonable".

She said that if one were to take cost-of-living into account, deferring payment until reaching the threshold would help transition fresh graduates into the job market.

Account executive Wong Xin Yi, 26, another PTPTN borrower, said many fresh graduates already have other financial commitments as soon as they begin work.

"There is a lot of commitments faced by those who are working, so RM4,000 and above is an amount that enables one to repay the loan," she said.

Prem Ananda, 31, though not a PTPTN borrower himself, thinks the proposal would encourage better repayment because the borrower would be in a better position to do so when they reached the threshold, which in turn would benefit new borrowers.

A third path?

Salesperson Randy Lee, 31, said he disagreed with both the present system - which requires repayments to begin six months after graduation - and the Harapan Youth's proposal.

"They should start repaying once they start earning a salary, at rates which took into account of the borrower's ability to repay," he said.

Announced as part of their GE14 manifesto, Harapan Youth yesterday unveiled the proposal, saying they had taken into account the current cost of living.

It was reported last year that more than 1.5 million debtors owed the fund over RM32.07 billion in unpaid loans.

The fund has had problems receiving payments from its defaulters and had imposed various measures in its bid to recover the debt. This includes imposing travel bans on defaulters and even blacklisting them on the Central Credit Reference Information System (CCRIS) under Bank Negara.

It has even "invited" defaulters to renegotiate terms of repayment and opened branch offices on weekends and after office hours.

Current regulations require recipients to repay their PTPTN loans six months after graduation, with options to defer payment or to convert loans into scholarships if they obtain a First Class Honours in their degree.