25 June 2009

MARA : Financially drying up

M.A.R.A as the acronym goes for Majlis Amanah Rakyat is giving awful news to the deserving Malays who are in dire need for assistance to educate their children to tertiary level.

A few told me that their children who have been agreed by MARA to sponsor them for their tertiary education in various universities were told that their sponsorship were put on KIV as the oldest government agency has dried up of their funds.

This information or hearsay is too hard to bear as the country is not anymore competent to finance the needy students to further their educations, the basic responsibility of any reasonable government must accomplish for the growing up children of the nation.

This is an actual history, a real unspeakable one and that reflects the tangible incapacity of the ruling government to function even in disposing its very basic responsibility to her people; that is education.

While we accept that there is a global economic down-spiral, no one can accept that the young sons of the soil being encumbered from studying in universities and colleges just because the government has low cash level.

Why the government of the day is is not giving priority to educational assistance for the deserving people especially for the Bumiputra? MARA is among the only few agencies that provide educational assistance for the needy to lean on.

Providing education is the basic government expenditure. Failing which, it’s like a pair of parents who are not able to feed and provide diapers for their new born baby.

In the decades of late 60’s until end of the 70’s scholarships were provided by many sources. Bank BUMIPUTRA and PETRONAS gave thousands of scholarships right from day one of their operations but that is not happening anymore.

BBMB and PETRONAS were then the real agencies which disbursed scholarships to actualize its real functions to develop the nation and education was acknowledged as the most viable mode and medium to arrive at that goal.

The chief of the 2 agencies were nationalistic enough to allocate large sum of money for the purpose of education and those sent by PETRONAS and BBMB are now serving as heads and important position both in Public Services and Private Sectors.

But all those are history as BBMB itself is no more in existence. The directions have changed since the 80’s where scholarship was replaced by loans that were to be paid in full plus the element of interest plucked to the loan scheme.

At present any student registered in the universities are automatically indebted to more than tens of thousands of ringgit who would promptly receive letters of demand as soon as they are graduated.

MARA is the only place left for thousands of Malay students to seek assistance in going through their financial encumbrances in getting to university campuses.

Now MARA itself is plagued with financial incapacity and this is too much for the majority of the Malays to stomach.

This is contemptible state of affair; what happen with the big talk about bringing the nation to greater height and all the slogans in place? What do all those rhetoric mean if we can’t even spare funds for the education of our children?

Why are we getting further from the basic constitutional rights of scholarships and when can we get the taste of free education like Germany and all the Scandinavian countries?

The 2 and the half months old administration have got this issue to answer instantaneously. This is the issue of the poor majority of the population who voted the government in power.

This is an issue that needs the answer to come from the PM himself, not just from MARA.

This is not the issue of MARA autonomously; it is the issue of government as a whole and in totality. These are issues of dignity of the ruling government and do not to take this issue lightly.

Registrations of new intake of students in all local universities are just around the corner and anguish of poor parents who fail to get their sons sponsored to the universities is very visible.

I am happy to remind my commentators in this blog who used to bash me and alleging me for my critics on the government and alleged me as a thankless creature who forgets the scholarship that the government gave me.

To those commentators in anonymity I can now answer your critics on me without exertion.

While you are right to be thankful for the scholarship you secure for your own studies 40 years ago, you have to bear witness now that your generation is almost denied of their opportunities to get hold of what you had.

It will be too selfish on your part just to mill around your satisfactions of 4 decades ago and you rebuked those persons like me in fighting on for your generation to enjoy what you have enjoyed exceedingly.

The unfortunate lots can be among your own family members and relatives or you neighbors. So it is very unaffectionate on your part to think that a person who thinks aloud for your generation is committing crime and against the government.

Let us agree among ourselves, that education is the basic conscientiousness of any country with government and with constitution. To a nation, scholarship and any educational sponsors is a must; like a must for every one of us to feed our growing children.

I am hopeful that what ever allocation that MARA is due for should be settled with now without further procrastinations.

Our leaders can persist talking about other big economic developments with announcement of economic comings and goings with high and pretentious economic jargons once the basic obligation like student educational assistance through MARA is done.

To PM Najib, please do the needful now. Our sons are in the quench of educational progression to achieve their burning desire to be rounded citizens.

Please unravel the problems with sense of compulsion, and never take it as a favor from your part.

I don’t enjoy writing an article with this tendency, but I am compelled to do so.

Someone has to be upfront in saying it, since no one has the courage to unfasten it in the open.


Thanks………………………………………Aspan Alias

15 comments:

Tok Jantan said...

MARA dah habis duit pasal perangai orang Melayu tak tahu nak bayar balik hutang.

Dah banyak dah MARA tolong orang Melayu. Berbillion tapi hanya segelitir yang berjaya. Yang tak berjaya hutang hangus.

MARA bagi scholarship pada budak Melayu tapi dapat ijazah third class.

how said...

hei aspan,


how will you feel if your children after 20++ years still come back and ask for financial assistance?

why can TAR college survive with little government input?

i truly agreed with you that some really deserved students whom are our future will lose out not because of their faults.

another country have too much money but do not enough student but here....another sad day.

Anonymous said...

Second half of Mahathir era, he turned 180 degree instead of providing affordable & high quality higher education to to all Malaysia children (spill over from the Malays), he reduced it and let it be privatised. Higher education supposed to be subsidiesed like the Western Modern Nation.

Will that answer your question?

In Mahathir era, those who came back from oversea were deprieved the chance to utilised their knowledge to developed this nation with Mahathir's selection of nepotism and cronyism. So everything are dead, from then on.

This destructive Coruption, Cronyism and Nepotism is then ENHANCED by who else, ANWAR IBRAHIM until it broke the possibilities for the ruling elite to turn back to the right path outlined by Tun Razak.

Until today, nobody has the slightest idea of how to turn Malaysia back to where all the basic necessity for life are affordable - house, higher education and food.

Malaysian mind are druged with entertainment and drug itself to make the mass forget the original target set by Tunku & Tun Razak. Even Najib is also at loss.

Anonymous said...

Kenen saya nampaknya Aspan; Kerana kesibukan dah lama tak lawat blog Aspan.. bukan nya apa..

Kadang-kadang menyampah nak membaca coretan Aspan, asyik nak hentam gomen, hentam TDM, hentam BN .. apa-apa yang mereka buat walaupun baik akan nampak busuk di pandangan "blinkered eyes" Aspan, kan.

Pasal scholarship ni.. setuju dengan pandangan Aspan ni.. 'Government of the day must do something on this'.Kesian pada mereka yang tak mampu walhal anak-anak mereka mempunyai potensi.

Masalahnya jumlah biasiswa tidak meningkat dan jumlah biasiswa untuk bumiputera telah berkurangan kerana nisbah biasiswa bukan bumiputera telah meningkat semenjak tahun lepas.

Saya rasa orang Melayu telah kehilangan "telur" mereka untuk bersuara mengenai hak mereka. "Telur' mereka dah mengecut..Nak cakap pasal "unity government' antara UMNO dan PAS, pun orang Melayu ketakutan. Bukan Melayu gelak betul pasal ni..Sedihkan Aspan.Negeri dahlah negeri Melayu, majoriti Melayu, nak cakap pasal hak Melayu pun takut, nak cakap pasal Unity orang Melayu pun takut, nak cakap pasal satu sekolah untuk semua pun takut..ape ni...

Sabtu ni saya seperti ribuan bapa yang lain nak menghantar anak saya yang pertama ke UUM, biasiswa dah lah tak dapat, PTPTN tak pasti lagi dapat. Nasib baik ade sedikit duit EPF untuk membayar yuran pengajian.Kalau tak entahlah..

Saya tak menyalahkan 'govt of the day' keseluruhannya. 'Many things have changed since the election last year.Life for the non Malays are getting better, I think. There are more rooms for them to study at IPTA & get scholarship'.

Nasihat saya pada anak saya, belajarlah dengan sunguh-sungguh 'so that you deserved to be awarded the scholarship and not because you are bumiputera!",zaman telah berubah Aspan!, kan...kerana orang Melayu telah hilang ke"jantanan" mereka...

Orang Kampung

vinnan said...

Tell me. Why do the majority of Malays keep voting for UMNO and then blame the non-Malays when things go wrong. Malays cannot admit to their own foolishness in voting UMNO? Why?

Aspan Alias said...

how,
That was what I mean; many deserving cases are deprived of higher education because of lack of assistance from the agencies which are supposed to assist them.

On TAR college,it is not true that there was small government input.

The government were giving assistance dollar for dollar that MCA was collecting.

MCA was smart then. They collected large sum of donation and the government was obliged to give them dollar for dollar and they got huge sum of money from the government.

thanks

Tok Jantan said...

Orang Melayu selalu mungkir janji. Buat perjanjian selalunya tidak menepati janji. Itu sebab MARA jadi masaalah untuk dapatkan dana yang mengcukupi untuk membiayai segala benda yang orang Melayu hendak. Tapi bila dah ditolong semua janji tak di kota. Hutang perit nak bayar dan MARA terpaksa gunakan loyar untuk kutip utung.Ada utang tak bebayar sampai dah dapat cucu. Depa buat tak kesah je!! Lepas tu nak memberontak kata kerajaan tak tolong. Pasal apa?

Sebabnya senang je Sdra Aspan. Pasal Melayu tidak menghayati apa yang terkandong dalam Quran surah al baqarah ayat 282. Panjang ayat yang Allah firmankan.

Tak payahlah nak marahkan MARA. Bayar jelah hutang barulah boleh biasiswa diagihkan lebeh banyak lagi. Takkan orang Melayu nak terus dimanjakan. Berapa lama lagi nak pakai tongkat yang dah buruk. Tongkat yang dan 50 tahun masih lagi nak dihadiahkan kepada anak cucu.

Aspan Alias said...

orang kampong,

Saya adalah penyokong BN yang kuat tetapi saya mengambil pendirian untuk menegor mereka mengikut pandangan saya.

Susah saya nak menyokong pemimpin yang membuatkan parti ditolak rakyat.

So, I am bashed for my stand but I dont move any inch from that stand.

I dont support the party by amusing the leaders because leaders can go but the party has to stay.

I can't help admiring you for your commitment to send your child to UUM on your own expenses,

You are like me. I have spent on children education through my nose and I don't complain as that can make me more independent to talk and to give my view without fear of favor.

In actuality, spending own money for children education make you feel more self actualized.

You will know that you are man with self satisfaction and it is so sweet feeling.

Congratulation to your child for being among the lucky ones chosen to be enrolled to that esteemed uni.

flyer168 said...

Aspan,

What is new in this Bolehland?

Majority Government - Muslim Hadhari Ketuanan UMNO/BN

Who are the Policy Implementers?

Muslim Hadhari Ketuanan UMNO/BN Mercenary Goons....

Who are the Defaulters?

IRRESPONSIBLE Muslim Hadhari Ketuanan UMNO/BN supporters'/affiliates' children/relatives....

Who are the ones now suffering from this "Shameful" MARA State of Affairs, having no more Funds?

Their own younger generation of Melayu Bumiputra Students....

Not many parents are as well off as some of us....

So as you can see....

It is the Muslim Hadhari Ketuanan UMNOputras, their Mercenary Goons & IRRESPONSIBLE supporters'/ affiliates' children/relatives screwing their own kind....

How can they be allowed to continue to "Shame & Degrade" our "Melayu Bumiputra" race?

Are they going to blame the non Bumis for this "Self-Inflicted Legacy?

Is there the Political will to take "Stern & Firm Action including jail sentences" for the Implementers (Loan Agreement Execution) & Defaulters.

What Pragmatic Solutions can you expect from the PM who was also the Education Minister at one time, propogating the same Legacy ....

vinnan said...

'The government were giving assistance dollar for dollar that MCA was collecting.'

In other words you learn to help yourself first before asking for help. In most towns you will see that the rich Malays are also UMNO members. The rich UMNO Malays refuse to help with the education of the Malays. All they want to do is to keep sucking the government for more. Why can't the Malay community do something like TAR? The tens of thousands of APs issued by the government to UMNO members is more than enough to fund a few TAR-like universities. If after 50 years of being in power the Malays are still unable to help themselves then no one is able to help them.

baru pencen said...

Mr. Aspan,

Tell me who among the Ministers/UMNO leaders are fighting for us, the Malays?

The leaders are the Bumiputras you know?

They reap our coffers but they talk about leadership....brengsek!

So other BN leaders...Kong Choi, Leong Sik, Semi Velu and the rest.

Eh, you can't corruptions. People talk about it. Corruption can't be done alone..remember that Aspan.

That was what happened to PM Najib.
The officers talk about it after they retire.

Bak kata perpatah 'bangkai gajah tak boleh di tutup dengan nyiru'.

Rentikan cakap pasal pemimpin. Benci saya mendengarnya.

how said...

hei aspan,

thanks for informing on the one dollar to one dollar matching grant from the government. But i believe that is for UTAR and not TAR college. Even so, it is only 50%. Whether the government provide additional funding in the yearly run of UTAR, I do not know. Once again, UTAR is meant for all M'sian, Malaysian.
How can MARA run out of money? Simple answer is there is no management in MARA because they think the "Grandfather money" will never ever dry up. Just spend, spend and end of the year submit another higher budget request.
If those in charge really work according to the objective of MARA, I am sure there is too much money already spent on MARA and MARA should be able to stand on their own today.

dua sen said...

Bro Aspan,

MARA's model of giving full scholarship to all qualified Malays is not sustainable. Scholarship is only meant for the cream of the crop.

The better model would be, if the student is accepted into the uni or college then they shouldn't be worrying about financing. It should be automatic education loan agreement like in Australia and made to pay by installment when they graduate. Unlike now, parents' have to worry if their children are smart enough to further their tertiary education. How ironic that govt is trumpeting human capital but not doing something about it.

Automatic Education loan is a better model becos :-
1) the students will take it seriously
2) financially viable.

The other important aspect is that MOE must not tamper with the grading system. Moving down the bar for statistics purpose is really for syok sendiri. If we keep to the standard like we use to ie 80-90 (A2) and 91-100 (A1) and so forth. Believe, MOE (Muhyddin) don't have to limit the number of subjects for SPM. Then you will not see 16As or 21As and you'll be able to separate genius and mediocre!

franksinatra said...

Dear Aspan,

you are having day dream. The leaders leading us are not going to change.
I for one is trying to change the ruling party for the first time 'cos they are not changing.
Chooce to vote another party..habis cerita.
Kalau kita kritik pun mereka takkan berubah. Just ignore those goons as from now and forever.

Anonymous said...

I have seen a few MARA students studying in overseas universities and to be honest i am left amused to how they managed to secured the scholarship in the first place.
Of course there are a few exceptional students being sponsored by MARA, but scholarship should be given to the fully deserved not because you are entitled to it in the first place.
The trend now in overseas universities is milking the money from international students by charging higher tuition fees, education has become a good business for some public unis which are in dire need of funds, hence lowering the unis academic entry for international students to attract more money.
If MARA want to sponsored more students then STOP sending them overseas and mass produce graduates locally.
Regarding Germany and Scandinavian offering free education, lets keep in mind here that both of these regions have a well develop universities and a very open environments towards ideas. AND not to mention merits come first when it comes to education.
And both countries are welfare states, hence citizens pay almost 50% of their gross income in income taxes in order to maintain this bloated system, so it is only appropriate for the state to offer free education for its tax-paying citizen.
I hope the government realized before it is too late that many countries are well ahead of the development curve. I rue the day ones our oil revenue dried up and the day we will chop trees to plant more palm oils and rubbers because we realized we had nothing else to offer to the world.

James.K