Khairy slams ‘foolish’ debate over non-Bumi admissions to UiTM

Former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the director-general of health, who is the MMC president, caused this problem by saying that he does not recognise this specialty. (Facebook pic)

PETALING JAYA: Former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin has criticised the ongoing debate over whether Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) should open admissions to non-Bumiputeras.

Khairy said the debate has escalated from a limited, short-term exemption request to fulfil the need for specialists to talks about opening the university to non-Bumiputeras in general and whether it must be referred to the Council of Rulers because it is related to Article 153 of the Federal Constitution.

“The debate over the issue of whether UiTM should be opened to non-Bumiputeras has become foolish.

“From a limited, short-term exemption request, it has escalated to a debate that UiTM must be opened to non-Bumiputeras in general,” he said in the latest episode of his Keluar Sekejap podcast.

“We never intended to open UiTM broadly to non-Bumiputeras. This is about solving the need for current trainees who cannot be registered as specialists due to the unresolved parallel pathway issue.

“You have to be serious, not trivial as mentioned by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim earlier. The issue is that we need to ensure that they (specialists) can be registered,” he said.

The former health minister added that there are multiple problems to resolve.

In the first place, he said, there are not enough graduates coming through the UiTM programme. Also, in admitting non-Bumiputera trainees, UiTM might exceed its Malaysian Qualifications Agency-approved quota.

He said to circumvent this problem it had been suggested that trainees transfer credits from the Royal College of Surgeons parallel pathway programme, but the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) cannot guarantee that they would be added to the health ministry’s National Specialist Register.

“It is stuck because people suggest UiTM should absorb, and then MMC says there is no guarantee we will eventually accept them because it might compromise or exceed the trainee-trainer ratio,” he said.

Previously, the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) had called for UiTM to prioritise public health by temporarily opening its cardiothoracic surgery programme to non-Bumiputeras amid a shortage of specialists.

In response, UiTM’s student council launched a protest against calls to admit non-Bumiputera students to its cardiothoracic surgery postgraduate programme by urging all students to wear black.

The council said it was intent on firmly defending the university’s founding objectives as an institution for Malays, Orang Asli, and the Bumiputeras of Sabah and Sarawak.

However, earlier today, the council apologised for causing a “misunderstanding” with its recent protest, saying its previous statement was misunderstood by certain quarters.

Khairy today urged the government to address the issue quickly.

“The health minister and the higher education minister need to solve this problem. The director-general of health, who is the MMC president, caused this problem by saying that he does not recognise this specialty.

“Settle it, settle this issue. The ministers and the director-general should get it done,” he said.