THE government must be bold and open its educational institutions to all qualified Malaysians, regardless of race, former law minister Zaid Ibrahim said.

He said the government, especially Umno, should overcome their fear as helping non-Malays could also help the Bumiputera.

He was commenting on Higher Education Minister Zambry Abdul Kadir’s statement that there were no plans to open Universiti Teknologi Mara’s (UiTM) cardiothoracic surgery postgraduate programme to non-Bumiputera students.

Zaid said there should no obstacles to doing that save for Umno’s “perennial fear”.

“This is Umno’s problem. Umno, it would help if you started looking at things differently,” Zaid wrote on X.

“The nation must come first. We are short of all kinds of medical specialists in public health. We are short of nurses.”

He said Malaysian doctors and nurses were going overseas in droves while the remainder had been mopped up by the private sector.

This is a threat to the public health system,” he added.

“Our educational institutions need to open up and take all qualified Malaysians to fill up the places.

“UITM was started to help Bumiputera and should continue to do so. But today, we have to recognise that helping non-Malays into UITM is also assisting the Bumiputera by solving the nation’s problem

“The fear of having more non-Malays as doctors, nurses or lecturers is the trauma of the 1970s.

“Umno must exorcise itself of this irrational fear. We are now one country with more significant problems but have enough resources to serve every group,” he said.

On April 25, Codeblue reported that UiTM was agreeable to opening its cardiothoracic surgery postgraduate programme to non-Bumiputera applicants for a “limited period”.

Raja Amin Raja Mokhtar, who is on the board of studies, said the decision was made in consultation with the  UiTM vice-chancellor and university board chairman. – May 3, 2024.