It is most irresponsible for two top Education Ministry officials, both of whom have academic backgrounds, to use wrong and even baseless data to mislead the people to bolster their contention for the extension of the 55:45 bumiputra/non-bumiputra quota to the IPTS.
In the past two weeks, DAP leaders had produced data from government sources to show that in the past two decades, the bumiputra student ratio in the IPTAs was not 55% but very much higher, ranging from 65.9 per cent in 1990 to 69.9 per cent for the first-degree level.
If the statistics given by the DAP leaders are untrue or incorrect, the Barisan Nasional leaders whether UMNO, MCA or Gerakan would not have kept a total silence in the past fortnight and would have unleashed a merciless barrage against the DAP.
We have also produced official data to debunk the second false claim that the IPTS bumiputra student ratio is only 10 per cent, when it is very much higher.
The Second National Economic Consultative Council (MAPEN2) Report shows that in the IPTS as at the end of 1999, bumiputra students comprised 19.4 per cent of first-degree, 40.45 per cent of diploma and 52.1 per cent of certificate enrolment, or 40.6 per cent of all tertiary students enrolled in the IPTS.
Can Musa and Mahadzir disclose as to where they get the data that bumiputra students are only 55% in the local public universities (IPTAs) and 10% in the local private institutions of higher learning (IPTSs).
As they have been using false and baseless statistics to mislead the Malaysian public, both Musa and Mahadzir should be honest and humble enough to publicly admit their mistakes and retract their false public claims.
(26/5/2001)