Another Brainless Underclass of.................................

Alumni: Those who question UiTM 'enemy of state'

The Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Alumni Association yesterday warned DAP's Teluk Intan candidate Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud not to stir anti-Malay sentiments by questioning the university's status as a higher institution exclusively for bumiputeras.

“Anyone who questions or threatens UiTM's status is considered a traitor and enemy of the state who must be opposed at all cost," said the Alumni's secretary-general Shukri Ishak.
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DAP's Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud kicked off her campaign today with events that included a walkabout at the Glutton Square Hawker Centre in Teluk Intan with several other DAP members. In hitting back at criticisms by Umno members, Dyana Sofya says a public institution of higher learning should never be placed at the mercy of a political party.

DAP’s candidate for the upcoming Teluk Intan parliamentary seat by-election, Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud, today said she did not know that her studying at the Universiti Institut Teknologi Mara (UiTM) was supposed to dictate her loyalty to Umno.

“UiTM was built from taxpayers money of all races,” Dyana Sofya said after her walkabout at the Glutton Square Hawker Centre here with DAP party adviser Lim Kit Siang and several other DAP members.

Dyana Sofya was responding to Wanita Umno chief Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s reminder to her today to “not become a traitor” while shaking hands with Dyana Sofya after the end of  nomination.

“I actually feel very ‘zen’ about it. I thanked her for her advice and assured her that I will not betray my country.”

Dyana Sofya had also been labelled a traitor by several other Umno leaders for standing under the DAP banner, saying as alumni of the university she was not supposed to do so.

The Ipoh-born attributed this to the “forced takeover” of UiTM by Umno.

Earlier in a statement, Dyana Sofya said UiTM belonged to the people and not Umno.

In hitting back at criticisms by Umno supreme council member Datuk Razali Ibrahim, the 27-year-old added that a public institution of higher learning should never be placed at the mercy of a political party.

Razali, who is also a Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, had yesterday admonished the political secretary to Gelang Patah Member of Parliament Lim Kit Siang for questioning UiTM’s policy in prioritising Malay students.

“When did joining UiTM made us Umno members?”

Last year, Dyana Sofya proposed that a similar institution like UiTM, which provided affordable, quality education to Malays, be established for non-Malays.

She went on to claim that during her time as a student, she noticed a discrepancy where “rich children of Umno leaders were admitted into UiTM, while poorer, but more qualified non-Umno linked families were shut out”.

In reiterating her belief that quality higher education should not be race-based, Dyana Sofya stressed that no political party had the right to stand in the way of dreams and aspirations of young Malaysians.

Equal opportunity to all deserving Malaysians, she explained, did not mean that Malays would be robbed.

“It means that more deserving Malaysians of all races, including many Malays who do not support Umno, will have access to quality higher education.

“My time in UiTM has trained me well enough to resist attempts by Umno to manipulate UiTM by using it as a political tool.”

Saying that Umno had lost sight of its future and was more concerned in stoking ethnic sentiments to shore up support for itself, Dyana Sofya said that equal opportunities did not mean that Malays would be robbed.

“A public institution, more so a public institution of higher learning, should not be placed at the mercy of a political party. UiTM belongs to the people and not to Umno.”

Dyana Sofya then called upon her fellow alumni and students at other public institutions of higher learning not to be chained to Umno and BN’s agenda.

“An ‘alma mater’ means ‘nourishing mother’ in Latin. Never allow Umno and Barisan Nasional to rob you of a nourishing mother by turning it into a repressive master.”