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Is MIC's AIMST A Mist Or A Must?

I wrote this for VettiPechu, the Indian discussion group

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POLITICS | Is the MIC's AIMST a mist or a must? http://vettipechu.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=112 Posted on Saturday, August 03 @ 16:02:00 EDT by eS

- - - - - - - - - - - - By M.G.G. Pillai | pillai@mgg.pc.my

THE ASIAN INSTITUTE OF Medicine, Science and Technology (AIMST) would be, if the MIC president, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, is believed, one of Malaysia's premier centres of excellence in education. The Ministry of Education, however, does not seem to share similar sentiments. It has suspended AMIST's medical courses for the usual reasons: insufficient lecturers, short of medical equipment and laboratories; if it is not corrected in a month, the MBBS medical degree courses should not be offered. Classes must stop in the meanwhile. The AIMST vice chancellor, Prof V.G. Kumar Das, accepts the conditions. Not the AIMST chairman, Dato' K. Ampikaipakan, however. He insists the RM250,000 MBBS course would continue as scheduled. AIMST would explain to parents and undergraduates "what the problem is" on Sunday, 4 August, 2002.

Could perchance this problem be that the AIMST cannot in a month, indeed in years, have in place the medical equipment and laboratories for it to resume classes? That it thought it could con the undergraduates to believe they would be in place when they must use it? That given the difficulty Malaysians have in entering the professions, this would be ideal for a "hit-and-run" college, to make as much money as possible and have an unsuspecting investor take it over? Or is it to show Indians MIC could start its own medical school if a former MIC leader, without its backing, could?

The late MIC vice president, Dato' K. Pathmanaban set up the Manipal Medical College campus in Malacca. Dato' Seri Samy Vellu moved heaven and earth to stop that. He could not. So he sets up AIMST. If Dato' Pathmanaban can, so could he. Is AIMST so for MIC to keep up with the Jones (sorry, that should be Pathmanabans!)?

AIMST is run and planned like a dog's breakfast. Those who run it are professionals, but even they cannot turn sows' ears into velvet purses. It is seen as an opportunity to acquire Mercedes Benzes and other baubles of Bolehland's high and mighty to be. One is not then surprised it runs foul of what it must provide. Even needed staffs are not employed. It is to save money, one AIMST official justified. AIMST, he said, is a private university, and all this cost money. So, even before it opened its doors, it cut corners. What matters, above all, is for the undergraduates to fork out the high tuition fees. If they get an education, that is their good luck. No one in the MIC is allowed to discuss these concerns. One who did was suspended.

The main contractor for the campus is, in Bolehland's finest traditions, one who has never built a hospital. He cleared the land, but did nothing else. So AIMST sacks him, seeks a new main contractor. It seems to believe competitive bidding only delays projects and, to not put a fine point to it, reduces what can be siphoned off. Small wonder that buildings around us look 50 years old five years after it is built. The "world class" Bukit Jalil sports facilities cannot be used even for local sports events without an expensive refit. Similarly the AIMST campus. When the thinking on the project is flawed, how could it be what it must be?

The MIC underwrites AIMST, but has no direct link with it. Dato' Seri Samy Vellu collects funds to kick start it and keep it afloat. He promised he would not touch the MIC and the Indian community for funds. This means he would; and does. Every MIC branch must contribute RM11,000 and he expects every Indian RM1,000. Also, a small share of the take from the recent concert of South Indian film stars goes to the fund. The real owners of AIMST, however, are two Samy Vellu cronies and a Malay. While Samy Vellu asks the Indian-Malaysian community for contributions, he does not ask the Malay community to do the same -- even though a Malay owns 40 percent of the equity.

More worryingly, AIMST is structured so the Indians could not run it in due course, the two Indian cronies bailing out if MIC and the Indian community does not. As Maika Holdings and other MIC's commercial projects, this is another project where good money is being thrown after bad.

This idea of a university is a middle class fixation; it is built not because of need. The Indian-Malaysian middle class feels it must keep pace with those of the other ethnic groups. It cannot stand being regarded as the poor cousin, and believes it should have nothing to do with the poorer Indian, whose education is not as important as it is for it.

Although the MIC does not have a policy on education, it runs a few colleges through its Maju Institute for Educational Development (MIED); one does not, however, know if the latter is owned by the MIC or by individuals. All the colleges are failures, some more than others. As run and planned, AIMST would join them soon enough. All mark you are for the Indian middle class. The poorer Indian could not afford the fees.

Moreover, neither the MIC nor AIMST officials would take the community into its trust. We know of problems only when the authorities step in. Not even then, if they do not publicise it. That they did is proof something is severely wrong. It is normal for bodies like AIMST to be called in privately and warned to shape up or ship out. If it was, no one outside would have been aware. That it was not, does it presage a bigger problem not only for AIMST but for the MIC, as well?

There is pressure on Dato' Seri Samy Vellu to make way for a new leader. He does not think he should. He believes he has earned his right to be in the cabinet after Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed's. Few in UMNO think so. So one must also ask the other inevitable question: Is this a not too subtle way to rearrange Indian politics? Either way it does not augur well for the MIC or AIMST. Another inevitable: Will Dato' Seri Samy then sabotage the MIC and AIMST to stay on in the cabinet when the new prime minister does not want him? There is more to AIMST than meets the eye. Especially if the new MIC leader would back it as strongly when neither MIC nor the Indian community would benefit.

M.G.G. PILLAI, a veteran journalist and columnist, runs the popular discussion group, Sangkancil