by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Monday, May 20, 1991:
DAP calls on the Australian Government to exempt the 10,000 Malaysian students from the doubling of the visa processing fees for this year.
DAP calls on the Australian Government to exempt the 10,000 Malaysian students from the doubling of the visa processing fees for this year.
It has been reported that some 10,000 Malaysians among overseas students in Australia face deportation if they do not pay the visa processing fee which has been doubled.
The doubling of the visa processing fees for the Malaysian students already pursuing higher studies in Australia will definitely cause great hardships for those coming from poor and low-income families.
I regret that the Education Minister, Dr. Sulaiman Daud, has not only refused to intervene on behalf of the Malaysian students over the 100 per cent increase of visa processing fees but even made the most uncalled-for remarks that the students “could not expect to have the best of both worlds” and “should not expect to get everything for free”.
For the information of Dr. Sulaiman Daud, none of the 10,000 Malaysians student in Australia is expecting “to get everything for free”.
What they are asking is that adequate notice should be given before additional financial burdens are imposed on them – as otherwise, their financial plans for their studies in Australia would go awry.
This is a fair and reasonable request, and Dr. Sulaiman Daud should be ashamed that he should be so unsympathetic to the plight of the Malaysian students in Australia.
I still hope that the Education Minister would take a more responsible attitude on this matter and ask the Australian Government to be more sympathetic and to exempt the Malaysian students from the doubling of the visa processing fee for this year.