107 was one of the ways to get the Chinese to view the problem rationally.

However the government's chief spokesman had to be Ivlu3a Hi tarn, the Education Minister. Mu3a argued along the lines of the impracticality for the private sector to set up the proposed university in terms of cost and poor employ-

108

ment prospects for its graduates. He cited the case of Hanyang Universi­ ty in Singapore which started off as a x^ivate university but had to be ta­ ken over by the government because its sponsors could not generate the mil­ lions of dollars annually to maintain the university. He added that despite the degree of the university being recognized by the Singapore government, the bigotry, especially of the private sector, to accord it a lower status comx^ared to the University of Singapore degree, could not be done away with. Owing to the importance of English as a result of increasing contacts with

106. See Hew Straits Times, 11th October, 1978.

107. For details, see K.Das,'’Hussein stops the rot", Far Eastern Economic Review, 20th October, 1978*

108. It was estimated that the initial cost of establishing a university to accommodate 2,000 students would be $30 million. $10 million would be needed to run it annually. Asian Almanac, 17th March, 1979*

the outside world in terms of commerce and industry, science and technology and access to higher education - thi3 implied the downgrading of Mandarin for practical purposes - Nanyang University had to become a bi-lingual university, and eventually English was officially made a medium of instruc­ tion in

1975

joint-campus programme merging it with the University of Singapore was ini- tinted in 1978* The government’s reference to Nantah was that the pro­ posed Merdeka University would suffer a similar fate, forcing the govern­ ment to take control of it eventually. Musa stressed that even the T.A.R.C., which was meant to be privately sponsored, had to depend on the government

for half its bills, a further reminder to the Merdeka University sponsors of tne impracticality of private universities and colleges11^ His arguments were rational and markedly toned down from the implied threat of violence in his earlier announcement to reject the proposal at the U.M.N.O. General Assembly in September. The M.C.A. accused the D.A.P. of trying to make political capital by confusing the issue of the diminution of higher educa­ tion opportunities for the Chinese with the need to set up the Merdeka Uni-

111

versity. Lee San Choon, the M.C.A. President, charged that the D.A.P. was misleading the Chinese by promising them something which was not attain­ able within the stresses and strains of a multi-racial society1.1 2 He maintai­ ned that the M.C.A. shared the concern of Chinese parents over a lack of

109. For full details, see Susurnu Awanohara,"The Great Debate rumbles on", Far Eastern Economic Review, 4th April, I960, pp. 14-5. See also article,"Nanyang U at the cross-roads"in New Straits Times, 3rd April, 1980.

110. See interview with Musa Hitamj Asiaweek, 23rd June, 1978.

111. For full details of the M.C.A.’s arguments, see New Straits Times, 11th October, 1978 and Rahman Adnan, op. cit., pp. 7-IO.

112. New Straits Times, 11th October, 1978. T h eM.I.C., G.R.M.,S.N.A.P. and S.U.P.P. gave broadly similar views.

higher educational opportunities but that Merdeka University was not the solution on impractical grounds of cost and employment opportunities for graduates as stated earlier by Musa. Sensing the anxiety and fears of the Chinese, Lee appealed to them to think over the problem objectively and unemotionally (as the M.C.A. leadership had done so to great lengths and in great depth) while he would make a plea for more places in local universities for the C h i m e s e ! ^ The M.C.A. was afraid that any emotional outburst by the Chinese would provoke an extreme Malay backlash and weaken the position of the moderate U.M.N.O. leadership. Already Malay extremists were talking about the need to set up an Islamic University if the Merdeka University proposal was approved}1^ Even the M.C.A.'s acknowledgement of the lack of higher educational opportunities for the Chinese was sufficient to provoke concern among certain quarters in U.M.N.O., particularly U.M.N.O. Youth'1'1^ The tendency of U.M.N.O. Youth was to regard the government's discrimination in admitting more Malays to the universities as a corrective measure to rec­ tify the pre-1970 imbalances against the Malays. They were angry in the sen­ se that corrective measures such as these were continually being thwarted by the admission of more non-Malays in overseas universities, disregarding the fact that lack of opportunities at home had forced the non-Malay students overseas in the first place. U.M.N.O. Youth wanted to settle for no less than the M.C.A. and the G.R.M. showing complete and unqualified rejection of Merdeka University and an acknowledgement that discrimination in favour

113« For details of the M . C . A . 's rejection of the Merdeka University, see New Straits Times, 27th November, 1978, Malaysia, February 1979» and Asian Almanac, 17th March, 1979»

114. For details, see Thaung Myine,"Merdeka University:T.7hy that debate?", Straits Times, 16th October, 1978. See also Mirror of Opinion, highlights of Malay, Chinese and Tamil Press, Ministry of Culture, Singapore, No. 25/1970» 31st January, 1978.

of Malays as regards university enrolment was imperative. Thus when Dr. Goh Cheng Teik, a deputy minister representing the G.R.M., appealed to Musa to reconsider his earlier U.M.N.O. General Assembly announcement to reject the Merdeka University on the grounds that the principle to set up private universities was being compromised, Malay extremists from U.M.N.O., P.A.S.

117