DAP’s Astaka State Assemblyman, Ng Thien Yeong, must be held accountable for his defence of the recent changes to the matriculation policy. Is Ng prepared to look the affected students in the eye and tell them, without hesitation and avoidance, that the Education Ministry’s decision to exclude A minus grades from being considered as A is fair and reasonable?

Ng had responded to MCA President Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong’s criticism of the Ministry’s revised admission criteria for the Matriculation Programme. Specifically, the change that involves no longer recognising an A minus as an A. In doing so, Ng invoked Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology (TAR UMT)’s scholarship policy in an attempt to discredit MCA’s position. To use TAR UMT in this manner, as a tool to justify a policy that has disheartened many hopeful students, is deeply inappropriate.

Let us be clear. It was MCA that founded TAR UMT and has consistently offered scholarships to high-achieving students, with the express purpose of fostering educational advancement and expanding access to higher learning, especially for Chinese youth. DAP has not established even a single kindergarten, yet Ng Thien Yeong sees fit to criticise both MCA and TAR UMT. His behaviour in such a manner is unacceptable.

Moreover, in his defence of the Education Ministry, Ng has resorted to making misleading statements. According to TAR UMT’s own scholarship structure for diploma and foundation programmes, students who achieve eight or more A grades (comprising both A plus and A) are eligible for a full tuition fee waiver. Those attaining eight or more A grades including A plus, A, and A minus, qualify for a 50% tuition fee waiver. On what grounds, then, does Ng claim that TAR UMT does not treat an A minus as an A? Many other universities, companies and associations follow similar criteria in their scholarship schemes. To compare this with the government’s matriculation intake policy is simply unreasonable.

Ng Thien Yeong’s conduct must be recognised for what it is: a distraction from the core issue. The Prime Minister pledged last year that students who achieve 10 As would be guaranteed entry into the Matriculation Programme. Yet this year, after the SPM results were released, the government abruptly changed course and excluded A minus grades from consideration.

What we are witnessing is a clear shifting of the goalposts. To reduce the number of 10 A students qualifying for the programme, the Ministry has deliberately altered the definition of what constitutes an A. In doing so, DAP and Ng Thien Yeong have misleadingly mixed two separate issues: the criteria for admission into the Matriculation Programme and the scholarship conditions set by TAR UMT. Is this fair to the students who have worked so hard?

DAP must stop offering excuses. If there is any sense of integrity in their conscience, they must start putting themselves in the students’ shoes. Standing by those in power while disregarding the issue is not an act of leadership, it is a betrayal of the Malaysians that they claim to represent.

Mike Chong
MCA National Youth Deputy Chairman

2 June 2025

-MCA Comm-