Tun M: Undergraduates are ungrateful due to greed, complacency

The greedy attitude and complacency with the prosperity achieved by the country are making the present generation of undergraduates to be ungrateful for the facilities provided by the government to them, said former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today. He voiced this concern as there were irresponsible groups who were exploiting the situation to influence the undergraduates to do negative things to go against the government. "The government had been providing numerous facilities to the undergraduates from before. The previous undergraduates who had enjoyed the facilities had been very grateful but the present students are too comfortable and even look at these facilities as a normal thing that the government does for them. This drives them to be greedy for more facilities. "The comfort and greed have made them blind to the financial limitation of the country in giving them the facilities in order to ensure that the country is managed properly. This is aggravated by the lies spread by certain groups who promise to give free education and many other things," he said. He said this when delivering his keynote address in the programme "Together With Statesman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad" entitled "Undergraduates and Graduands Inheriting National Leadership" at Universiti Teknikal Malaysia, here. Also present were his wife, Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali and Melaka Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam. More than 10,000 undergraduates from public and private institutions of higher learning in the state participated in the programme. Dr Mahathir said an undergrauate must be wise in evaluating which was good or bad based on the wisdom that they had instead of their emotion and desires. In order to be an excellent leader, the undergraduate must learn to be close to their leaders and understand them. Meanwhile, when asked on the claim that certain groups tried to create chaos during the 13th general election, he said the opposition would try to create chaos so that the people would have doubts about the general election.