(Oct 23): Perkasa today rejected a proposal by Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) pro-chancellor Tan Sri Dr Arshad Ayub to open its doors to all races, saying that non-Bumiputeras were always free to study at other public higher education institutions.

Perkasa Youth chief Irwan Fahmi Ideris said UiTM’s mission was to produce graduates and intellects from the Bumiputera community alone.

He said allowing other races to enrol into UiTM postgraduate programmes could threaten the future of the Bumiputera community, especially given that they had such a small slice of the economic pie.

“Why must the special rights of the Bumiputeras in this university be disturbed? The excuse that it would allow for healthy competition and produce more intellectuals is not strong enough.

“There are many more public universities for non-Bumiputeras in Malaysia. UiTM is the only higher education institution that still champions the Bumiputeras and today UiTM is trying to threaten its position,” he said

Yesterday, Arshad said it was time to consider opening up opportunities for non-Bumiputeras to study at the varsity's Masters and PhD programmes.

He said the matter should be considered as the world was now more challenging with bigger  competition, Bernama reported.

“I would like to remind that the Bumiputeras’s percentage of the economic pie is very little. So to those ‘intellectuals’, help provide more chances for the future UiTM Bumiputera graduates and make sure our economic position is stable once more,” said Irwan. – The Malaysian Insider