Dr Wee utterly disappointed by Guan Eng's reply on TAR UC allocation

PETALING JAYA: Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong (pic) is “utterly disappointed” by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng’s reply for not providing a matching grant that was approved by the Cabinet in 2012 for Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TAR UC). 

In a Facebook post on Wednesday (Nov 21) night, the MCA president also took issue with the Pakatan government, which he said was punishing the educational institution for its association with MCA.

Lim confirmed in Parliament on Wednesday that the government will only allocate RM5.5mil in development funds to TAR UC but no matching grant for capital expenditure.

In his speech, Lim also stressed that the Pakatan government advocates separation of education from politics, hence as long as TAR UC belongs to MCA, it will not consider providing the matching grant.

“It is very obvious that Pakatan is punishing TAR UC because of MCA,” said Dr Wee.

“It did not take into consideration that TAR UC students mostly originate from Chinese middle and low-income families.”

Dr Wee stresses that MCA, as the founder of TAR UC, had never taken a sen out of the institution.

He also adds that in December 2017, Pakatan leaders criticised the Barisan Nasional government for only allocating RM30mil to TarUC, and yet now they (Pakatan) are adamant about not providing the matching grant to the institution after taking over the federal administration. 

“Were they just using the topic to gain political mileage last year? There are two TAR UC graduates in the Pakatan Cabinet but none of them spoke up for TAR UC today,” said the Ayer Hitam MP.

Dr Wee asked why Pakatan was politicising education if it wanted to champion the separation of education from politics. 

He added that the Finance Minister has disregarded the fact that TAR UC is a non-profit educational institution that has produced over 200,000 alumni. 

Lim should know that TAR UC's tuition fees are lower than other private institutions because of financial assistance from the government, he said. 

Despite Pakatan’s stand, Dr Wee pledge to “strive to find a way to sustain the operations of TAR UC and focus on providing quality education to all regardless of background and political allegiance”.