In his facebook posting last night, Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong denied saying the Public Service Department (JPA) has suspended government scholarships and that the matter was being studied by the department.
He said that he had not officially announced or confirmed the suspension.
I wish to advise Wee not to play with words but to focus his efforts to help resolve the plight faced by the students.
The fact of the matter is that the scholarship has suspended and as reported, several hundred students have been affected.
The affected students and their parents are not interested in whether Wee did officially announce or confirm the suspension, but they want to know what he, as a Minister, will do to help them.
In fact, Wee’s denial is quite a joke.
It is so clear from the media report that what he said was confirming the suspension without uttering the words “I hereby confirm the suspension”. Otherwise the media would not have reported that the scholarships have been suspended.
If there was no suspension, there is no doubt at all that Wee would have officially announced so.
Perhaps Wee is under some pressures for having said too much to the media about the suspension, but he should not run into panic and start to play with words.
Since Wee Ka Siong has taken up the matter in the Cabinet, he should provide answers to the two following questions.
Firstly, why was such an important decision with huge implications made by Public Service Department, rather than the Cabinet as Wee was only aware of the issue after the matter was highlighted by the media?
Secondly, there were allegations that Mara scholarships would not be affected. Are these allegations true? Did he raise the issue in the Cabinet meeting?
Teresa Kok