THE opposition should start its free education election pledge with state-owned university University Selangor (Unisel), the higher education minister said, adding that the university wouldn’t have survived without the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN).

Idris Jusoh said Selangor is the richest state in the country and should be able offer free education to Unisel students.

“They (opposition) just say that because they want to incite our students. If they can do it they should have done it at Unisel first.

“Unisel would have been closed down if I hadn’t instructed PTPTN to help them,” he said told representatives of the 2017 Student Parliament who attended preparatory workshop and debate simulation in Seri Kembangan today.

Idris, however, did not say which incident he was referring to.

He was asked by a student about scholarships for public universities.

Unisel, which was formerly known as Universiti Industri Selangor was established in 1999. In June 2012, PTPTN had frozen its loans to new students at Unisel.

Former Higher Education Minister Khaled Nordin had said that the decision was made following political pressure from the opposition over free education. The freeze, however, was temporary.

Idris also said that fees for public universities in Malaysia were among the lowest in the world.

He added that among the reasons Scandinavian countries could offer free higher education was due to high income tax rate.

“In those countries the taxes are at 50-60% rate, our tax is only about 20%,” he said. – July 16, 2017.