KUALA LUMPUR: Gerakan treasurer Datuk Ng Chiang Chin yesterday commended Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim “for having the wisdom to be open-minded and thinking like a Malaysian” with his suggestion to open up 10% of Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) intake to non-bumiputera and foreign students.

“Despite our political differences, I am convinced that his multi-racial outlook on higher education will have a positive impact on the future generation of Malaysians. This is the quality that a Malaysian leader must have if the country were to move forward.

“On the contrary, vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Seri Dr Ibrahim Abu Shah, who hit out at Khalid for his progressive view, is doing a great disservice to his own university,” he said in a statement.

Ng said Prof Ibrahim, as an educator and administrator of an institution of higher learning, should be proud if more Malaysians were keen to enrol in UiTM instead of reserving the university exclusively for bumiputeras.

“Furthermore, UiTM is funded by taxpayers’ money that comes from all Malaysians, regardless of race. If this is the case, why deprive some segments of the society to preserve an outdated practice that would not serve the cause of inter-racial unity?”

Ng said segregation would not only discourage competition but also deter the bumiputeras from understanding the non-bumiputeras and vice-versa.