— Stephen Ng The Malaysian Insider Jun 10, 2012
JUNE 10 — I have been following the news about the PTPTN, and had previously written about it as well.
The latest development by the minister of higher education, Khaled Nordin, is one of the worst of Umno’s political games.
From the shared script with Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, the victims were apparently the students and their parents.
This ploy did not take into consideration the younger generation of Malaysians who cannot afford the higher education under the present Barisan Nasional regime.
To play on their sentiments is something that most Malaysians will not forgive.
Sometimes, silence is golden. In this case, it only became worse when Khaled Nordin had the cheek to say that the freeze on PTPTN loans to Selangor-owned tertiary education institutions “was sparked by the Selangor government’s failure to find a permanent solution for providing free education.”
As an observer, I seriously doubt Khaled’s integrity as a minister. His remarks came when the Selangor government was prepared to set aside RM30 million to provide free education to the students of both universities.
In my opinion, Khaled has lost his credibility and the people’s confidence in his ability to run an important ministry, no thanks to all the dirty politics that he and his comrades are willing to play in order to stay in power.
I wish to remind Khaled, Muhyiddin, and the rest of Umno’s ministers under the leadership of Najib Razak, of one of Bersih’s eight demands: Stop the dirty politics.