Mustapha should haul up Open University Malaya not only for being poor advertisement for  English proficiency in tertiary institutions but also for its ignorance of Rukunegara because of its divisive and blatant discrimination of Malaysians against Malaysians

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Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Parliament, Tuesday): Higher Education Minister Datuk Mustapha Mohamad should haul up Open University Malaysia not only for being poor advertisement for English proficiency in tertiary institutions but also for its ignorance of Rukunegara because of its divisive and blatant discrimination of Malaysians against Malaysians.

The Open University Malaysia (OUM) has put up an online advertisement inviting applicants for its Corporate Secretary Certificate course  run by its Institute of Professional Development(IPD). This is available on its website: http://ipd.oum.edu.my/programme-csc.html

On entry requirements, it said:

The programme is:

I read the third condition, in particular the latter reference of “at least one year in the case of Bumiputeras; or, at least 2 years in the case of Non Bumiputeras” a few times and I must confess that I just cannot understand it. May be only OUM “experts” can understand its meaning.

This  OUP-IPD advertisement is not the best advertisement of the standard of English of its academic staff or what its students would acquire.   A competition could be  held on who could uncover the most number of English mistakes in the brief advertisement.

Even more serious than the English mistakes, however,  is the discriminatory provision for entry requirements – “Minimum of 12 months working experience in related fields (company secretarial, accounting or general management) for Bumiputera and 18 months experience for Non Bumiputera; at least one year in the case of Bumiputeras; or, at least 2 years in the case of Non Bumiputeras” (whatever the latter means).

Why is the rationale for  this unusual discrimination between bumiputras and non-bumiputeras where for “entry requirements” for the course, a minimum of 18 months working experience in related fields is required for non-bumiputeras as compared to 12 months for bumiputeras?

Recently, there has been a lot of talk about how the principles and the philosophy of  Rukun Negara have been forgotten by the present generation of Malaysians, with Professor Khoo Kay Kim, described as “one of the architects of Rukunegara”, lamenting the “lacklustre achievements in racial unity” as proof that race
relations between Malaysians are at their most fragile in nearly 40
years.

How can national unity make headway when educational institutions, in particular tertiary institutions, become hot-beds of discrimination, division and disunity, as in the case of OUM-IPD course and advertisement mentioned.

Many administrators and academicians in tertiary education institutions have lost sight of the Rukunegara philosophy and principles, which see Malaysia’s ethnic and religious diversity as an asset that should be taken advantage of to create an united, just, democratic, liberal and progressive society. 

The new Higher Education Minister should ensure that every university administrator and lecturer (including OUM) really understand the Rukunegara philosophy and principles so that universities play their role as  active agents promoting national unity, integration and integrity instead of becoming negative forces  accentuating  ethnic polarization  and undermining national unity and integrity in plural Malaysia.

(28/02/2006)