Those of you who do not want to pay your education loans This is dedicated to all the nitwits who do not want to pay their education (PTPTN) loans. You know these are people who scream “pinjaman PTPTN membebankan, kami mahu pendidikan percuma” and “kerajaan zalim, PTPTN tak ubah seperti Ah Long”. Yes, those types of nitwits (especially Anwar’s little boys). I think it is only basic decency. You borrow money, you pay. It does not matter whether you are poor or your girlfriend ran away or you have been sodomised, you still have to repay what you borrowed. It is not your money. If you signed a contract, then you must honour that contract lah. Kalau tidak, you are no different from the goats. Primary education in Malaysia is free. Secondary education in Malaysia is free. Tertiary education in public universities in Malaysia is 80% subsidized. So students actually only have to pay about 20% of the actual fees (as compared to students in private colleges and universities). Is 20% of the actual fees of getting a degree too much to pay? Especially when you get a loan to cover this 20%. Are we pampering our university students? All over the world, students work their way through college. I have found that students who have worked while in college turn out to be better employees. They are a lot more resourceful, street-wise and confident. It builds character. Should we encourage our students to work while in college? Instead of forever whining asking the public to pay their expenses, why can’t our students work? I did. I would like to share three stories. Story 1 I was in Manchester in the mid 90’s, doing my post-graduate research (don’t worry, I was not using up Malaysian taxpayers money – I had a scholarship from the University of Manchester and topped up with my savings). At that time, Malaysian under-graduate students on government scholarship received a living allowance of GBP 400 per month. Most of them complained and complained at what they termed as pittance. Everytime a government officer from Malaysia visited, the meagre allowance was our students’ number one complaint. Enter HY. HY was a student from China, also doing his PhD under the same professor as I was. The Chinese government provided him with only GBP 200 per month (for a PhD student – which was only half of what our undergraduates were getting). So I asked HY how he survived with only GBP 200 per month. He told me that he only spends GBP 100 a month. He sleeps in a sleeping bag in the postgrad students’ room. He lives off instant noodles. No movies, no beer, no entertainment, no nothing. He was saving GBP 100 a month so that he could bring his wife and child from Beijing to stay with him in Manchester. He saved for almost three years. By the time I finished, HY’s wife and child were already in Manchester and he got his PhD. Story 2 During my undergrad days at UTM, scholarships and loans were hard to come by. A few got scholarships from JPA, some got loans from various organizations, and many had nothing. Many had to quit halfway through their studies when their parents could not afford it anymore. To make matters worse, when my batch graduated, Malaysian was experiencing a major recession. Jobs were very very difficult to come by. I got a job as a research assistant for RM 400 a month. My friend, SB, took a loan from Perak State Government during his uni days. After he graduated, he was jobless for a few months before he got a job as a technician with a starting salary of RM 600 per month (he had a degree in Mechanical Engineering). Do you know what he did when he got his first salary? He proudly made his first monthly loan repayment. He did not go to Dataran Merdeka to whine. He did not go to beg to anyone to waive his loan. Despite his low salary, he did the right thing. He paid his loan. According to him, he would be embarrassed if he did not finish paying up his loans. I remember him saying that his father would probably disown him if he did not pay his loan. Story 3 Have you all heard about Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh?. Muhammad Yunus established the Grameen Bank in the 1980s. Grameen means village. Both Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2006. Muhammad Yunus has also received numerous other awards from so many countries for his efforts in eradicating poverty in Bangladesh. The Grameen bank provides micro-credit to the poorest of the poor in Bangladesh. The people are so poor that no one else will give them loans. Grameen Bank gives the loans without collateral. 95% of the borrowers are women. Do you how many percent of the borrowers default on their loan repayments? Less than 2%. Only less than 2% of the borrowers (who are very very poor people) fail to repay their monthy instalment. Because they know it is immoral not to repay the loans. Because they cannot face their neighbours or friends if they do not repay. Because they have pride. Because they are honourable people. End of stories. If anyone comes to you saying that they refuse to pay their PTPTN loan, please smack them on their face. My point : You borrow, you pay. It is not your money. The world does not owe you a living. IF YOU BORROW, YOU MUST PAY.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Oct 2013 12:30:49 +0000
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