9km PROTEST MARCH TO PARLIAMENT
KUALA LUMPUR: About 20 university students marched 9km to Parliament here to protest against the repayment schedule for the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) as outlined in the 2019 Budget.
The group, made up of students from Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), International Islamic University Malaysia, Universiti Putra Malaysia and others, began their march from UM with the intention of handing over a memorandum to Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik over the issue.
However, they were left disappointed when they were barred from entering the Parliament building when they arrived, just before 1pm.
Malaysian Islamic Student Affairs president Muhammad Faizuddin Mohd Zai said the group was dejected at being unable to handover their memorandum to Maszlee.
“We want to tell Maszlee that he is a hypocrite. He spoke about democracy, but we walked 9km only to wait by the roadside. It is as though we are nothing.
“Yes, we do not have anything and we are not big companies that can lobby the government. Students are the poorest segment of the people and will continue to be so due to our PTPTN debt being deducted from our salaries automatically, by force,” Faizuddin said yesterday.
On Nov 2, during the 2019 Budget tabling, the government announced a scheduled repayment scheme of between two per cent and 15 per cent of the borrower ’s monthly income, applicable to those who earned more than RM1,000 a month.
Pakatan Harapan, in its manifesto, pledged to allow borrowers to begin repayment only when their salaries reached RM4,000 a month.
PTPTN chairman Wan Saiful Wan Jan recently apologised for backtracking on the promise, saying that the fund would be hit by financial difficulty if it pressed ahead with the move.
The students handed over their memorandum, containing a breakdown of the cost of living for fresh graduates who earn RM1,000, to Maszlee’s special officer, Abdul Hannaan Khairy.
Faizuddin labelled the move to send Hanaan to meet them as ignoring the voices of the students.
He hoped Maszlee would look at their memorandum and consider their proposal, failing which, after further discussions with stakeholders, “we will walk from UKM to Putrajaya”.