1MDB has been urged to repay grants from the federal government, worth RM1.1 billion, which can go to fund Public Service Department (JPA) scholarships and other education bursaries in the face of cost cuts by the government.
PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli said this following news of the suspension of JPA scholarships, which will affect 700 students.
"I would like to advise Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak of the best way to return funding to such education scholarships and bursaries," he said.
1MDB should return the grants as they were taken to fund the upgrading and transfer work on military bases related to Bandar Malaysia.
This project, the Pandan MP said, is the responsibility of 1MDB and should not involve public funds.
"The amount of RM1.1 billion is more than enough to fund the scholarships which I mentioned," he added.
Mara scholarships also denied
Rafizi said The JPA scholarships suspension is not the first time the government has cut allocations for scholarships and study grants recently.
He pointed out that he had raised questions on Mara scholarships before, as thousands of students who tried to get a scholarship or loan from Mara has been denied this.
In Budget 2016, Rafizi said, the allocation for scholarships and bursaries had also been cut, while the funding for the Poor Students Trust Fund had been reduced from RM200 million to RM10 million.
"This madness continues with the suspension of JPA scholarships for 700 scholars, who will be furthering their studies on a degree level," he said.
Rafizi said the fact that the people only found out about the JPA scholarship suspension through news, initially reported only in the Chinese newspapers, shows that Najib does not dare to face the rakyat to explain such decisions.
The approach that Najib is taking in Budget 2016 is becoming clearer, he argued, saying that the prime minister would rather cut spending on the people than spending on projects that involve the interests of his cronies.
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