JASIN -- Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak today reminded Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) students and alumni to remember the good deed of the Barisan Nasional (BN) government in nurturing them to become successful citizens.
He said the estimated 500,000 UiTM alumni, who now held high positions in the government and private sectors and were professionals, were products of the university established by this government.
Many of these people came from ordinary families, among them smallholders, farmers, fishermen and junior assistants, but today they are successful and hold high positions because of UiTM, he said at the groundbreaking for the Jasin campus of Melaka UiTM in Seri Mendapat near here.
The prime minister said the BN government had all along continued to transform the livelihood of Malaysians through the most effective tool, education.
He said the government would continue to nurture the estimated 180,000 UiTM students into making them successful as well.
Najib said the transformation being implemented by the government, including investment in the education sector, would mould Malaysia into a developed nation by 2020.
"If there are people who think that Malaysia will go the way of Egypt, I say that it will not experience any political upheaval because we have met the expectations of the people.
"We have given the people hope," he said.
The prime minister said there was no reason for the people to hold street demonstrations or participate in processions when they had a secure future.
"It is our struggle (to ensure they have a secure future)," he added.
The prime minister, who is on a day-long visit to Melaka, criticised the Pakatan-led Selangor government's rejection of a proposal to build a UiTM campus on land belonging to PYBK Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of the Poverty Eradication Foundation (YBK), in Serendah, Hulu Selangor, in December 2009.
He said the project was relocated to Seri Mendapat, Jasin, and that the people of Melaka stood to gain from the venture.
The campus project would provide opportunities for the people of the Jasin district to raise their living standard in the economic, social and educational aspects, besides enabling YBK to derive some benefit to implement poverty-eradication programmes nationwide, he said.
"I was saddened when I heard about this case of YBK, which was established to help the poor and orphans. How could the Selangor government be so cruel to a foundation for the poor and orphans?
"It is not a question of development only in Serendah. Without the UiTM campus, the people of Hulu Selangor will lose out. The beneficiaries will be the people of Seri Mendapat," he said, adding that the Selangor government was foolish to turn away good fortune.
The UiTM Jasin campus, to be built on 213 acres (about 85 hectares) at a cost of RM297 million, will be developed by YBK Usahasama Sdn Bhd and was expected to be ready in three years.
The campus, which will also have a faculty of applied science, a faculty of farm management and a faculty of computer science and mathematics, will be able to accommodate 5,000 students.
Also present at the groundbreaking ceremony were the prime minister's wife Rosmah Mansor, Melaka Chief Minister Mohd Ali Rustam and Higher Education Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin.
(Bernama)
