KUALA LUMPUR – Universiti Teknologi Mara’s (UiTM) student body has launched a protest against calls to admit non-Bumiputera students, urging all students to wear black tomorrow.
The call to action by its student representative council (MPP) follows an appeal by the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) last week for UiTM to put public health interests first by temporarily opening its cardiothoracic surgery postgraduate programme to non-Bumiputera, amid a shortage of specialists and surgeons in the field.
The MPP in a statement said all its 214 members firmly defended UiTM’s founding objectives as an institution for Malays, Orang Asli and the Bumiputera of Sabah and Sarawak.
“To affirm our stand, MPP UiTM has agreed to launch the campaign #MahasiswaUiTMBantah from May 14 until 16 with the purpose of spreading knowledge to all students about the fundamental rights of Bumiputera.
“We urge all students to use the hashtag #MahasiswaUiTMBantah on social media to show we hold fully to Article 153 of the Federal Constitution.
“We also urge all students, especially UiTM students, to wear black on May 16, 2024 (tomorrow) as a sign of our protest against any agenda to open UiTM to non-Bumiputera,” the MPP’s statement said.
MMA president Dr Azizan Abdul Aziz in the association’s appeal to UiTM said if the university could open its doors to international students, it could surely allow fellow Malaysians to study there, especially to fill the urgent need for cardiothoracic specialists.
“Everyone is impacted by shortages in specialists. As it stands, we don’t think we will be able to meet the target of 28,000 medical specialists by 2030.
“We need UiTM to support efforts to produce more cardiothoracic surgeons by opening it up to all Malaysians who wish to specialise. Healthcare should never be politicised,” Azizan said.
She also highlighted remarks by UiTM’s Prof Dr Raja Amin Raja Mokhtar, who said he did not believe legislative amendments were needed to admit non-Bumiputera students into UiTM’s postgraduate programme.
The remarks by Raja Amin, who is also on the board of studies of the UiTM-IJN cardiothoracic surgery postgraduate programme, were reported by health news portal Code Blue. – May 15, 2024