Samy To Liaise With Ukraine Govt On Crimea Issue

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 4 (Bernama) -- Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu will ask the Ukraine government to request its Crimea State Medical University (CMSU) to deal directly with Malaysian students there without going through agents.
The MIC President said the agents, also Malaysians, had been "terrorising" the Malaysian students there.
"I don't want to use the word Mafia but Malaysian students there can't do anything without going through agents. Even to get a teh tarik, they have to go through agents.
"They are afraid of the agents. They were mentally disturbed by the agents," he told a press conference after holding a dialogue with more than 400 CMSU students at the Putra World Trade Centre here.
For example, he said, each student has to pay capitation fee of between RM30,000 and RM40,000 to the agents covering visa fee, service charge, admission letter and transportation from airport to university.
The visa actual cost is about RM50 only.
Under CMSU regulation, Malaysian students have to apply through agents for their admission to the university.
Radeekumar, 23, a fourth year student there said the capitation fee imposed by the agent was RM2,000 only in 2001 and sky-rocketed to between RM30,000 and RM40,000 now.
Samy said he would write an official letter to the Ukraine Ambassador in Malaysia as well as asking Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar to liase with its Ukraine counterpart in pursuing the matter.
He hoped the efforts could help "to regulate and deregulate" the four Malaysian agents there currently adding that: "Only Malaysians (agents) can do this kind of (bad) activities."
Samy said he would also ask the Selangor Foundation and the Johor Education Foundation as well as the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) to continue providing loans to the CMSU students as the government's decision to derecognise the university would only come into force beginning next year.
Thus, he said, the current 1,067 students and 247 pre-medical students there should not be affected by the government's decision adding that even if a student enroll before Dec 31 this year would not be affected by the ruling.
The dialogue is organised by the Maju Institute of Education Development (MIED), an education arm of the MIC.