GIVE DETAILS HOW PTPTN WILL BE ABOLISHED, PR TOLD

Give details how PTPTN will be abolished, PR told

Don't just make promises but show that they are doable. This is the gist of the message from a student activist, urging Pakatan Rakyat to explain how it would implement the promise to abolish the National Higher Education Fund Corporation and replace the scheme with scholarships for Malaysian undergraduates.

In an opinion piece in Harakahdaily's Malay edition welcoming the promise to do away with study loans if PR comes to power, Mohd Yusof Hadhari, former information chief of the influential Pan-Malaysian Coalition of Islamic Undergraduates (GAMIS), urged PR to qualify its latest pledge with details of its implementation.

The promise to abolish PTPTN loans, under which students would be repaying their loans spanning several years and in many cases decades, is PR's promise to the undergraduate community in addition to the repeal of the Universities and University Colleges Act.

Yusof however cautioned that although the pledges were not included PR's Orange Book which lists the instant reforms the coalition would implement within 100 days of Federal power, students should not be taken for granted.

"I agree if the abolishment of PTPTN and UUCA are not included in the Orange Book, as they concern the undergraduates and not the wider public.

"But do not think that people will be easily influenced by promises and that they do not bother about the implementation part," wrote Yusof.

'Don't take us for granted'

He reminded that politicians were in the habit of making promises, and recalled prime minister Najib Razak's pledge to repeal the Internal Security Act and amend UUCA. Yet, both the acts are still around in their original forms.

"The present age is no longer that of 'politics of promises', but it is about politics of facts and evidences," he said.

As such, Yusof said that even though the youth might find PR's promises believable, they must be convinced through facts.

"PR should meet the youth and explain to them the question of implementing it (the pledge to abolish PTPTN). Perhaps by making use of Petronas's annual profit of over RM90 billion," he said, and noted that last year alone, over RM40 billion worth of PTPTN loans were distributed.

"The youth are still waiting to know how PTPTN and UUCA will be abolished. It is hoped that Pakatan Rakyat can convince them by providing facts and explaining how these can be carried out when it comes to power," he added.

Earlier, another student activist Adam Adli hit out the zeal with which borrowers of PTPTN were chased by the authorities when at the same time a crony businessman was bailed out to the tune of over half-a-billion ringgit, referring to a report that the government had written off the debt owed by former MAS boss Tajudin Ramli.

PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu had prior to this pledged the party's support for any rallies organised by students against PTPTN.

“When the students organise the rally, PAS will give its support,” he said.

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