UiTM: Maintaining exclusively Bumiputera policy necessary to bridge racial gap

KUALA LUMPUR - The retention of the Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) policy for Malays, Orang Asli and native children of Sabah and Sarawak is still necessary to bridge the socio-economic gap between races.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir said that the report from the Bumiputera Economic Congress in 2024 by the Economy Ministry showed that there were still economic disparities involving Bumiputera in terms of average monthly income, corporate equity holdings, poverty rates, skilled labour output and professional qualifications.

He said that the absolute poverty rate among Bumiputera still requires continuous efforts for improvement.

"The establishment of UiTM itself was in response to the shortage of trained professionals, especially among the Bumiputera in Malaysia, who were predominantly involved in unskilled jobs at that time.

"With the founding of UiTM, more Bumiputera children have had the opportunity to further their studies and be trained to fill various positions in both the public sector and the industrial sector.

"It is essential to improve their quality of life and change their fate in Malaysia, including in professional sectors such as doctors, accountants, lawyers, engineers and others," he said in the Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday.

He said this while responding to a question from Ramkarpal Singh (PH-Bukit Gelugor) on whether the government intends to allow non-Bumiputera to study at UiTM by amending the UiTM Act 1976.

Zambry added that UiTM is a public university established under the provisions of Article 153 of the Federal Constitution, as stipulated in Section 1A of the UiTM Act 1976 [Act 173].

He clarified that Article 153 of the Federal Constitution encompasses the power of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (YDPA) to set quotas for Malays, native children of Sabah and Sarawak, which forms the basis of the Bumiputera agenda for student intake at UiTM.