JOHOR BAHRU: Home minister in the former Pakatan Harapan administration Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said he had never agreed to cancel the administrative allocations for Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR).

He told Sin Chew Daily in an exclusive interview that he left Pakatan Harapan because the coalition had failed to do the right things or fulfil its pledges. Instead, he said it had done things that frustrated the Chinese and Malay communities.

Muhyiddin, who is also Perikatan Nasional chairman and former prime minister, insisted that it was essential for UTAR to continue operating because it is an institution of higher learning established for the Malaysian Chinese community.

He admitted that given the limited resources of the government, MCA and the local Chinese community have put in a lot of effort in the hope of increasing the university admission rate of Chinese Malaysians, which is actually a good thing for the country.

He said he did not agree to cancel the administrative allocations for UTAR, and that this was one of the reasons he could not work with PH.

Muhyiddin said when he was the prime minister, he insisted to reinstate the allocations for UTAR which were cancelled by PH’s finance minister Lim Guan Eng.

“I couldn’t do that, so I left (PH).

“That’s a question of principle!”

‘No races should be left out’

On allegations that he did not support Chinese language education in the country, Muhyiddin asked, “Did I close any Chinese schools?”

He said he had discussions with Dong Zong when he was the education minister, but the latter was insistent not to follow the national education system.

“As a minister, I was bound by the country’s policy, but I did not do anything to oppose Chinese education.

“I think you should instead ask BN what MCA has done when they are government.”

He reiterated that the PN government provided allocations to Chinese schools and had never stopped doing so.

He said he did not see any reason to destroy Chinese schools, and the things he had done proved that he had treated the Chinese community and Chinese education fairly.

Muhyiddin, who is also Bersatu president, said even though he had mentioned “Malay first” years ago, that did not mean the rights of other races would be neglected.

He hoped the public could judge him more fairly based on what he had done.

He cited the example of UTAR.

“When PH was the government, it was Lim Guan Eng who cut the allocations to UTAR, but I reinstated the allocations when I was prime minister.”

‘Should promote learning of Chinese’

Muhyiddin also said Malaysians should start to learn the Chinese language as China has become an economic superpower and is our largest trading partner.

“While we can learn Arabic and English, why can’t we learn Chinese? We should promote learning of the language.”

He said it is definitely an advantage to learn an additional language other than our own mother tongues.

He said the world has changed and Malaysians must have forward-looking mentality, adding that he believed Chinese would become a global language someday.