Time for the "mute" BN MPs from Sarawak to speak up on native issue

Kuching, March 11, 2012: Native fathers who are married to Chinese mothers in Sarawak must register their strongest protests at the rigid interpretation of the Federal Constitution by local public universities when accepting students, based on the quota system, to take up their programmes.

While Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) is being "honest" in making public its biased administrative policy, the rest do not.

Under its Senarai Program: UiTM 2012, the university lists many courses for the students to take - from foundation, to diploma, bachelor, master and PhD levels.

But the biggest stumbling block for Sarawak students is the constitutional requirements that they must fulfil before they can be accepted to take any of the courses.

Uitm will rely solely on the Federal Constitution before accepting the students to take up its programmes.

The students must fulfil three requirements:

(a) that they are Malaysian citizens
(b) that they must meet the status of bumiputera
(c) fulfilling the minium educational requirements for each progarmme.

While the inteprerations for the "bumiputera status" for Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia are very clear, that of Sarawak is rather complicated.

UiTM says it relies on 161A (6) of the Federal Constitution in classification the native status of the students from Sarawak.

Article 161A (6) states that in relation to Sarawak, a person who is a citizen and either belongs to one of the races as specified in Clause 7 as indigenous to the State or of mixed blood deriving exclusively from those races.

Clause 7 lists the natives of Sarawak as Bukittans, Bisayahs, Dusuns, Sea Dayaks (Ibans), Land Dayaks (Bidayuhs), Kadayans, Kayan, Kenyah, Penans, Lugats, Lisums, Malays, Melanaus, Muruts, Sians, Tagals, Tabuns and Ukits.

While the Federal government "does not recognise" the offsprings of native father-Chinese mothers as natives, the State Government, however, does.

The offsprings of native-father and Chinese mothers are enjoying the privileges accorded to the natives in Sarawak.

There are hundreds of thousands of offsprings of mixed marriages in Sarawak and when their numbers are translated into voters, they can be very formidable in determining the fate of Sarawak politicians.

It is time for these "mute" members of parliament, especially from the BN, to take up the issues in Parliament which is currently in session now.

Speak up, don't just warm your seats. Your performance is judged by your action in and out parliament. Some of you are also the offsprings of mixed marriages.
 Takkan you tidak ambil peduli, and pretend nothing is happening.

ends