In an interview with FMT, Abdul Razak Baginda, who heads the Centre for Global Affairs Malaysia (Icon), noted that students in private universities were mostly non-Malays and those in public universities were mostly Malays.
He urged the government to institute measures that would help poor students of all races enrol in private institutions, which he said gave education of better quality than did public universities.
“The government should take remedial action so these two systems do not end up accentuating the racial divide,” he said.
“The government could control the fees to ensure that poorer students of all races could enter the private institutions. The government can also hand out scholarships for poorer students to study in these private institutions.”
Razak spoke of two factors that were preventing Malays from enrolling in private universities. One of these is that they don’t have the financial means. The other is that private institutions are mostly run by non-Malays, which means they are free from bias when it comes to enrolment.
In an earlier interview, he said it was ironic that the New Economic Policy, which was meant to narrow the racial divide, had ended up widening it, with the Malays losing out.
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