Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today denied that the government is taking revenge on Malay students by imposing stricter requirements for their admission to public universities starting from the next intake.

"When we considered meritocracy, we were only thinking about the unsatisfactory performance of Malay students as compared to that of the others," Abdullah said at a press conference after officiating a student function in Kuala Lumpur.

He was responding to a claim by the non-governmental Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (Abim) that the newly introduced merit-based admission was to "teach the ungrateful and anti-government Malay students a lesson".

Abim in a statement yesterday said the government did not study the cause of Malay students' poor performance in depth, but had rushed into implementing the new policy in a state of "emotion and anger".

The influential organisation, comprising some 60,000 Muslim members in the country, also stressed that it will continue to oppose the proposed university admission system if the marginalised Malays in rural areas and the outskirts are not given priority under the new scheme.

Drafting details

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad recently rebuked varsity students, particularly the Malays, for not concentrating on their studies but getting involved in 'negative activities' instead.

Last month, Mahathir announced that the university admission for the next intake will be based on merit, following his prior warning a few days before that the government would resort to "drastic moves" to make the Malay students buck up in their studies.

The opposition claimed that the new system resulted from Mahathir's dissatisfaction with the increasing number of students involved in anti-government demonstrations, often associated with the reformasi movement, after the persecution of his former deputy Anwar Ibrahim in 1998.

Abdullah told reporters that the Education Ministry is drafting the details for meritocractic university admission but he did not specify as to when the guidelines will be ready.

The new system is expected to set higher requirements for bumiputra applicants to enter local public universities, he added.

'Negative side'

Asked whether the government foresees a possible decrease in the number of bumiputra students next year, Abdullah said the public should not just focus on "the negative side of things".

He said it would be wrong to assume that Malay students would not be able to survive in a more meritocractic studying environment.

"They may work harder and do better in their studies. Maybe more of them will be going into universities next year and their numbers may even exceed our quota," said the deputy premier.

The current quota system, part of the government's affirmative effort to help the impoverished and underprivileged indigenous people since late 1960s, states that bumiputra students must make up at least 55 percent of the students in a university.

Abdullah was officiating the Malay Students' Convention, organised by the Federation of Peninsular Malay Students (GPMS), in Universiti Tenaga Nasional (Uniten) this morning.

The three-day event will see several motivational and discussion sessions held to promote a competitive mindset among Malay youngsters in the era of globalisation.