This is in reply to the so-called Malay educationist (co-founder and former professor of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) Zainal Abidin Wahid's criticism on allowing non-Malays into Mara Junior Science colleges.

In the first place, even with the 10 percent quota for non-Malays, I believe the cream of non-bumiputra students would not take up these places, as they perceive the institutions as 'not good enough', judging by the rankings of top universities in Asia.

The most established of our institutions, Universiti Malaya, is ranked in the lowly 20s followed by the other local public universities such as UKM and Universiti Sains Malaysia. Mara is not even on the list.

Private colleges and private universities will continue their brisk business in providing quality education, at premium prices, to all who qualify and who can pay for it. The door is not even close to bumiputras if they can satisfy these requirements. Having quotas in these private institutions does not make sense, not to mention dollars and cents to the operators of these businesses.

As for stoking old stories of granting citizenships to grateful people, I suggest Zainal Abidin not to incur seditious charge in formenting racial unrest. It is demeaning for an educated person, especially for a former founding professor of a second or third ranked local public university.