Monday 17 December 2018

Please pay back PTPTN loans, it's beyond politics now

My friend Ai wrote this post in her now mothballed Big Cat blog back in April 2012, at the height of the Pakatan's anti-PTPTN campaign ,

Chinese students are better


Some "student activists" were camping at Dataran Merdeka at that time to demand free education and shutting down of PTPTN.

Backing them were Pakatan leaders who used the issue as a campaign material.


Ai wrote,

Anyway, the article reminds me of a conversation I had with someone close to me about nine years ago.

Well, that someone is actually my mother. Ai has always been close to my mother.

This is what she wrote about the conversation with my mother;

excerpts;

Deep down inside at that time, I knew she was right. We can't continue pouring money to help undeserving people. They will just ask for more and more. They are just incapable of thinking responsibly and will always believe that everyone else need to give them everything that they want. These are the shameless Malays. These are the type that are camping at the Dataran Merdeka.

Don't they realise that the money they demand be given to them actually belong to all Malaysians including the poor who pay the taxes in one form or another? Yes, that includes the Petronas money. That one is also duit rakyat, ok?

Don't they have any maruah claiming that they can't be paying back that money once they graduated and have a good job? 

Don't they realise that they already have it easy?

The person I had that argument, for instance, spent two years as a waitress at a restaurant in Singapore before saving enough to continue her studies in Taiwan. No scholarships or even loan despite her being among the top students in her school.

If she is a Malay, definitely she can get a place in UiTM, complete with PTPTN loan. I am certain she will gladly pay back the loan once she finished her studies, and probably think how wonderful of the government to provide such a loan facility for her.

But as it turned out, the tough road she went through turned out to be a blessing for her. It trained her to be tough and street wise....much better than me, in fact. She is now successful and as far as I am concern have the bragging right of being the winner of our past arguments on this matter. Well, good for her.


That was over six years ago.

Pakatan had continued the anti-PTPTN campaign all the way through the general election in 2013 and right up to the GE14 in May this year.

And it won.

Now, as everyone knows, the Pakatan government, set up following the victory realised that it's almost impossible to provide free education or even to waive the PTPTN debts.

It even went through quite a bit of problem managing the repayment of those debts, causing a lot of anger among especially those who have been paying their loans as per required of them.

Of course those who have not been paying are making the noisier racket as in the past.

As a result, the PTPTN people had backed down and just a few days ago said

PTPTN to carry out detailed study 

on loan repayment method


Personally, I'm glad they have decided on that.

They should not cause hardship for those who have been paying just because there are those who are shameless enough not to pay their PTPTN loans.

Whatever it is, the PTPTN borrowers need to pay back their loans.

Really, this is beyond politics.

Pakatan politicians such as Syed Saddiq who became a minister after exploiting the issue back then should just shut up and stop trying to be a hero now that the whole thing has turned the other way around.

Others who also flip flopped on PTPTN such as finance minister Guan Eng should do the same.

They should stop their current bullshit on the issue.

They are just making things look worse for the government.

They should instead apologise to the students, PTPTN borrowers and all Malaysians for the empty promises.

Maybe that could cool off the public anger a bit.

Let the PTPTN people sort out the mess, or even better help them in whatever way possible.

Let them come up with the best possible way to enable borrowers pay back their PTPTN loans without causing them too much hardship.

As for those anti-Pakatan people, I think you all should ease off on this one for now as the main thing is to get people pay back the loans so that we can help finance the future generation of students who need the PTPTN loan facilities.

If you all are still sore with Pakatan people who promised the students the sun, moon and stars over the PTPTN issue, let the people be the judge of that in the next general election.

To the PTPTN borrowers, especially those who refused to pay back their loans, please read back what Ai wrote above.

Her message was more or less the same as Dr Mahathir's


No matter what others would say, Dr Mahathir has always been consistent that those who borrowed money must pay back.

It's not after all him who made the empty promises such as providing free education and abolishing PTPTN.

They were made way before he joined Pakatan by irresponsible politicians who are now in power.

10 comments:

  1. I suppose majority borrowers having the "wait and see" attitude??

    Mana tau tetiba PTPTN jadi durian runtuh macam kes rasuah Guan Eng... PTPTN decides to buang aje file2 loan peminjam??

    Under PH anything impossible can be possible.. kekekeke

    Tengok LKS, dia pun telioq tetiba2 pelawa katak2 dari BN. Haiyaaa, isit true???Wokay la, asalkn jangan masuk DAP last2 pakat2 naik pelamin macam Zairil dan Dyana udah le.

    Professor Nasi Lemak

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  2. Annie,

    You haven't hit your assigned quota of 10 Lynas articles?

    Or now your boss is asking for 20???

    Greedy, greedy...$$$$$$$!


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  3. Well, it's quite simple.

    Annie just needs to find out where the missing 4 billion from Tabung Haji went.

    Plus the missing 20 billion from 1MDB.

    In fact...

    "KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 17 (Bernama) – Malaysia lost RM47 billion in Gross Domestic Product value to corruption last year alone, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

    She said a similar amount, of about four per cent of GDP, was lost to corruption annually since 2013, according to Transparency International Malaysia.

    "What can we do with RM47 billion? It is more than we spend on education and is almost double the amount spent on healthcare in 2017. Imagine what we could do if we had access to these funds; if they were spent on improving our potholed roads, easing congestion in our public hospitals or providing scholarships for the deserving to advance their education?

    "Imagine if the most vulnerable of our society - our women, children, the poor - did not have to rely on bribes and ‘knowing the right people’ to get services they need," she said in her keynote address at the United Against Corruption: Anchoring Anti-Corruption in Good Governance forum, here, today."

    Wow.

    How many PTPTN loans does that cover?

    My guess - all of them, plus we could actually upgrade all our uni to world-class facilities.

    No wonder Annie is such a crusader against corruption.

    Right?

    HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA....

    Ahhhhhhh, poor Annie.

    Numberrrrrrr One Hypocrite.


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  4. I agree with Annie, Ai and Dr.M.

    The Malays are just untrustworthy. Like Dr.M said in the clip, I too have lend money to close-relatives and they don't seems to care paying me... for 10 years now.

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  5. the goverment has to come out with some scheme to help them pay the loan. especially those who just started work should not be force to pay include interest. for those not employed, under-employed or "un-employable" some form of aids have to be hatched. those who find difficult to get jobs, HR ministery should find ways to help like "force" some sectors to absorb instead of getting foreign workers. in singapore priority are given to own citizens. for example most factory will take science graduates as engineering related. over here rather take some foreigners from filipines with enginer certificates

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  6. Annie,

    It is really quite simple.

    If one borrows money, one should pay that money back when it is due.

    The difficulty here is when the borrower has not got the capacity to repay the money, eg is married with several children, or has a job which barely pays for the essentials, or worse still, has no job.

    For years and years, UMNO/BN did very little to create a business environment which could gainfully employ graduates.

    Despite this lack of a conducive employment market, UMNO/BN did not stop handing out easy money as PTPTN loans.

    To add insult to injury, the education system was producing low quality unemployable graduates in huge numbers!!

    So how?

    Pakatan is now left to clean up the stinking mess again.

    I don't think PTPTN alone can solve the problem.

    It will probably need several ministries working together, eg Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Human Resources, etc etc.

    I hope Pakatan can find the answers needed.

    They have had a couple of false starts but at least they are willing to go back to the drawing board to try and find workable solutions.

    I wish Pakatan all the luck.

    Gladiator

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  7. Justice, finally....

    "KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has granted more than RM11mil in damages to The Edge Communications Sdn Bhd for losses incurred following the three-month suspension of two of its publications three years ago.

    Deputy Registrar Norazlin Othman awarded the compensatory damages totalling RM11,260,350 and a 4% interest from July 27, 2015, until full settlement.

    She made no order as to cost on Monday (Dec 17).

    On Aug 9 last year, the Federal Court ruled that The Edge could claim for damages from the Home Minister for the losses incurred during the suspension."

    I'm sure Annie feels as much sympathy for the Edge staff who lost their jobs?

    Why did they?

    Because they simply told the truth about a corrupt government.

    I guess "told the truth about a corrupt government' is quite an alien concept for Annie, whose objective is "cover-up all truth about a corrupt government".

    Mesti cari makan, kan.

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  8. Your article is pointing a finger to the Malays for demanding the abolishment of PTPTN but your photo is dhowing Indian ladies demanding the same thing.Could it be human nature to expect freebies when one has the mean to get it?

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  9. Aiyo annie! tulis la current isu..umno exodus...xpaye la cete cete basi leftover by ur paymaster...

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  10. When I was an overseas student in the UK in the 1970s. almost all of our British student colleagues received a government study grant, not a loan and I am in favour of free education for all students in Malaysia.

    Since then, neo-liberal policies under and since thetime of Margaret Thatcher as prime minister, has seen the conversion of those student grants into study loans, which are repayable, which is possible if unemployment is low but a burden on graduates in times of high unemployment or under employment.

    The former BN government allowed for the mushrooming of a slew of private universities and university colleges, some of decent standard and others of questionable standard, many of which are owned by cronies.

    The student takes a loan from a participating bank, then pays the crony university or university college, after which, when the student graduates, is left with the burden of having to pay off that debt after they graduate.

    Student debt is also a controversial issue in the United States.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NciaRO8VXZ4

    So I support the government providing student grants, not loans.

    BTW. As for the people protesting in that video, they look like Parti Sosialis Malaysia members and supporters and most of those in the picture do not look like Malays to me.

    FREE EDUCATION FOR ALL !

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