KUCHING, May 27: Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru (PBDSB) today urged the People’s Consultative Advisory Panel to postpone the public consultation townhall session on the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) here to a later date.
This session is scheduled to be held at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) on May 31, the eve of Gawai Dayak.
PBDSB information chief William Mangor said holding the event a day before the Dayaks celebrate Gawai Dayak showed that the government, notably the Ministry of Education, was not sensitive to the needs of the natives in Sarawak.
“We are not saying that education is not important, but they need to consider the fact that some of the students need to travel back to the interior, journeys that may take hours or even days.
“Hence, we hope the Ministry of Education can postpone it (townhall session) to a later date so that all races can attend,” he said in a statement today.
Meanwhile, William chided Putrajaya for ignoring the plights of students, especially those from poor families, in Sarawak and Sabah for decades.
He argued that since the formation of the national oil giant Petronas, Sarawak had literally been subsidising the education of Malayan students with its oil, but this was not reciprocated.
In calling on Sarawakian parents to wake up, he claimed, “Annually, 50,000 Sarawakian students are left out in the global race as they have been abandoned by the Ministry of Education. Malayan kids are prioritised over their poor Sabahan and Sarawakian brothers and sisters.” — DayakDaily
