THE problem of poor university students who often go hungry is not new and can only be addressed fully if the private sector works with the government to extend aid, said Education Minister Maszlee Malik.

“I think when it comes to welfare of society, it’s not the responsibility of the government per se but also the responsibility of everybody.

“Government agencies, private sectors and civil society should come together. What I really don’t want to happen is our students not excelling in studies because of the economic situation,” Maszlee told The Malaysian Insight.

Recently, local media highlighted cases of starving university students, many of whom could only afford a meal of plain rice and eggs once a day.

Some poor students survived on warm water and skipping meals altogether.

Maszlee said most of the poor students come from villages and rural areas to the city to study with little or no money for living expenses.

“This is not a new problem. They do need help, even when I was a lecturer back then, I experienced this problem with my students where they had no money to eat,” he said following a visit to Universiti Malaya’s Tengku Nazrin Shah hostel cafeteria to speak to student representatives.

Maszlee, who was a lecturer with the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) prior to his cabinet appointment, urged student unions and alumni organisations to be more proactive about identifying poor students who needed help.

Feeding the poor

The government has already set in motion several initiatives to help poor university students, he said.

One of the ways is to use state zakat funds, he said.

“Every state has its own zakat and definitely Wilayah Persekutuan (Federal Territory) is the richest, so the state zakat need to be used.”

Maszlee also said the concept of “muhibbah” should be revived in colleges where students, lecturers and staff help one another regardless of race and religion.

“Awareness needs to be spread for students and lecturers to help these poor students.”

The Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry said it will extend the Food Bank Malaysia programme to campuses to help starving students.

Under the programme, the ministry will supply the ingredients to students’ associations which then provide the manpower to prepare and distribute the food.

The Finance Ministry and the Education Ministry will also provide support in terms of finance and logistics. 

The Finance Ministry said yesterday that it has approved a special allocation of RM3 million to the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs to implement the food bank programme for the bottom 40% of household income group (B40), including students in 20 public universities.

The money would be used to purchase 14 refrigerated lorries for logistics purposes. – March 20, 2019.