THE government’s RM2 million allocation to the private New Era University College should not be politicised and raised as a racial issue as Putrajaya has also allocated RM15 million to Universiti Islam Malaysia (UIM), said finance minister Lim Guan Eng.

“It is very disappointing that there are certain parties that play up racial issues in the context of education just to win a by-election,” he said in a statement today.

“This is unhealthy because it would deny education opportunities and stunt academic growth.”

Recent reports in several news portals had quoted Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin as questioning the reason for allocating government funds to New Era College, which is a privately-owned Chinese vernacular university, when such grants to private university colleges were not in the 2019 Budget.

Lim said the government has taken an inclusive approach when considering allocation to education institutions, and warned politicians not to use the issue to “inflame racial and extremist sentiments”.

“Would I be labeled anti-Chinese or pro-Islam for approving RM15 million to UIM or be labeled as pro-Chinese or anti-Malay for approving allocation to New Era College or other private colleges?

“The Finance Ministry’s contribution should not be made into an issue… unless it was done with the bad intent to inflame racial and extremist sentiments.”

In the 2019 Budget, which was tabled by Lim at the Dewan Rakyat last November, the Education Ministry received maintenance funds for schools of all streams amounting to RM652 million compared to RM615 million in 2018.

Lim today said the allocation was for upgrading works for 11 types of schools, including Chinese independent schools, which received the lowest allocation of RM12 million.

National schools receive RM250 million, while national-type Chinese primary school and Tamil primary schools will each receive RM50 million.

He added that boarding schools received RM50 million, Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (RM50 million), mission schools (RM50 million), government-aided religious schools RM50 million, tahfiz schools (RM50 million), registered religious pondok schools (RM25 million), and national-type Chinese secondary schools (RM15 million). – January 16, 2019.