By B Nantha Kumar - Free Malaysia Today,FMT ALERT: KUALA LUMPUR: The Human Rights Party today submitted a four-point memorandum to the Prime Minister calling for an immediate increase of Public Service Department (JPA)’s overall budget allocations for scholarships to RM10 billion for students obtaining 9As. Current PSD budget stands at RM2.4 billion a year.
The memorandum also called for another RM10 billion to be given out as loans for students who have secured 7As in their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia exams.
The other two points in the memorandum called for the abolishment of the Sijil Pelajaran Tinggi Malaysia (STPM) and the introduction of matriculation exams instead for all races.
“We want the Prime Minister, Education Minister or the Higher Education Minister to meet with the Indian community within a week from now to address the scholarship issue or we will return to protest in front of the Parliament,” said HRP's pro-tem secretary general P Uthayakumar.
This morning about 100 parents of top Indian students gathered to protest at the Parliament. However their plans were thwarted by Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) barriers set up some 200 meters from the Parliament gates.
Last week the Federation of Malaysian Indian Organisations had said it will be organising peaceful rallies at various points around the country over the PSD’s cutback on scholarships for the non-Malay students.
The PSD had only set aside 134 scholarships for the Indians this year, a drop for the 600 earlier made available. This is because PSD had cutback on scholarships from 2,000 to 1,500 in view of the economic situation.
“We understand the economic situation and you have to reduce the scholarships but don’t use the non-Malay community as a scapegoat. It is unfair that they maintained the Malay quota for scholarships and slashed the non-Malay quota,” said federation president K Rajaratinam.
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