FORMER youth and sports minister Khairy Jamaluddin said that the education ministry’s lack of proper groundwork indicates that Pakatan Harapan will unlikely fulfill its 100-day pledge of granting borrowers of the National Higher Education Fund (PTPTN) loan a temporary postponement if their wages were below RM4,000 a month.

In Parliament today, Khairy had asked Education Minister Maszlee Malik how long it is projected for a graduate to earn RM4,000 upon completing his or her studies, how much extra the government will need to take out to support new PTPTN loan borrowers during the period of postponement, and the impact it would have on PTPTN’s finances.

Maszlee’s response to Khairy was that “further research is being conducted”.

“Today’s reply was not convincing that the pledge can be fulfilled, and I will continue to pressure the government to give an explanation in the near future,” Khairy told reporters.

He said that Maszlee’s reply revealed a lack of groundwork by Pakatan Harapan before they came up with their manifestor.

“This is important, because many Pakatan Harapan votes were based on this PTPTN pledge.

“So when there is no projection with regards to the financial burden, no projection on how long it takes a graduate to reach RM4,000 a month, this shows that PH made promises without seriously considering it.”

The PTPTN pledge was one of Pakatan’s 10 promises it vowed to fulfil within its first 100 days in power.

But Khairy said it was unlikely that the PTPTN loan postponement would be put into place by the 100th day as the government was obviously not prepared for it.

“When this pledge is fulfilled, PTPTN will have to take a loan to ensure there is enough funds for new borrowers and this loan will usually be guaranteed by the government and this will add to the burden of contingent liability which is in contradiction to the finance ministry’s current policy.”

In response to Khairy’s criticisms, PTPTN chairman Wan Saiful Wan Jan said that the agency did not have details on borrowers’ salaries, stressing that the agency would not be subsidising defaulters but was merely postponing repayment.

“The study mentioned by the minister was on what borrowers’ salaries are,” he said. – July 18, 2018.