After having previously opposed to any move to allow university admissions to be based on meritocracy, Umno Youth now believes that the system will improve the academic standard of the Malay students.

Youth chief Hishammuddin Hussein Onn said today meritocracy 'will wake up the Malays' and make them realise that they will not be able to handle competition if their academic performance did not improve.

Speaking to reporters after presenting monetary awards to National Sports Council athletes at Bukit Jalil in Kuala Lumpur this morning, Hishammuddin, who is also youth and sports minister, said that Umno Youth was originally against the implementation of an absolute meritocracy system for university intakes.

"But the prime minister and Umno president (Dr Mahathir Mohamad) has explained that it is not absolute meritocracy that has been proposed. It is going to be done in stages.

"So, I think things have come out quite well because people have realised the facts, and we need to make a concrete and joint effort to ensure that our students' academic levels are excellent," he said.

All levels

Hishammuddin said that Umno Youth's concern was to ensure that there will not be an imbalance in terms of race, wealth and geographic location in an individual's pursuance of further education.

"Before, under the New Economic Plan, the gap was between the haves and have-nots, as far as economic strengths were concerned.

"Now, in the world of the K-economy which is based on knowledge, the gap between those who know and know-not, between those in the towns and kampung, between the different races and between the rich and poor, has to be reduced," he said.

Hishammuddin added that meritocracy should ultimately be implemented at all levels of education in order to ensure higher academic achievements.

"Meritocracy in the context of university admissions and quotas alone will not solve the declining level of academic achievement among our students," he said.

Mahathir announced on Wednesday that entry levels for Malay students into public universities would be raised when a meritocracy system is implemented next year at selected varsities and for certain courses.

He told Umno divisional leaders at a special briefing on meritocracy that the system would be done in stages as 'imposing it in totality would result in a drastic drop in the number of Malay students'.