"This Is Why I Can't Sit With B40" – Lecturer Mocks Student With No Laptop In Online Class
"It only costs RM800 to buy a computer. What is your problem?" the UiTM professor chided.
By May Vin Ang — 30 Mar 2022, 11:52 AM
A lecturer from Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Perak was seen in a viral video mocking people in the B40 income group.
She also reprimanded a student for not owning a laptop in her online class.
An anonymous user posted a one-minute-and-45-second recording of the incident on Twitter last night, 29 March, and took it down in less than 10 hours later and deleted their account.
However, within hours, the video had amassed over a million views.
The tweet, believed to be from the student himself who is now an alumni, read, "Not everyone is born into easy circumstances. When a professor from UiTM Perak's Seri Iskandar campus talked to us ex-students this way, we all still feel insulted and affected by every word she said. You all judge for yourselves."
The video begins with the lecturer — who is an associate professor and doctorate degree holder — asking the student to answer a question.
However, she seemed dissatisfied with his answer.
After he answered, she asked if he was using a phone or a laptop to attend the class, to which the student replied that he did not own a laptop.
The lecturer then began asking him about his background, including his parents' profession, in front of the entire class.
"Where do you live? What does your father work as? What does your mother work as? Do you have brothers and sisters?" she asked.
The student from Seremban answered the questions as they came, and told her that his father is not working, his mother has passed away, and yes, he does have siblings.
The lecturer then suddenly went on a rant. While shaking her own gold bracelet, she raised her voice and said, "You go and tell your older sister, if she has a gold bracelet, go and sell it and buy a laptop!"
"I'm telling you, if you have an older sister, tell her to sell her gold bracelet and get a computer. This is why you can't study well, it's because you don't have a computer," she continued, while shaking her head.
"After this, I'm going to teach Microsoft Excel. Because of this, you're going to be a dropout student," she added.
"You don't have a laptop in the fifth semester... Even if I didn't have clothes, even if I have just five pieces of clothing left, it is most important for me to have a computer."
"It only costs RM800 to buy a computer. What is your problem?" she chided.
"This is why I can't sit with B40 people. They will think about other things instead of their studies."
After her rant, she told all the students to turn off their cameras because she could not stand to see their faces anymore and continued with the lesson.
The video garnered over 70,000 retweets and hundreds of replies before it was taken down, with netizens in anger and disbelief with the lecturer's actions
While the university has yet to address the issue, UiTM's alumni association has openly condemned the lecturer's behaviour
According to Astro Awani, UiTM Alumni Association Malaysia president Rasydan Mohd Hassan is calling the university's top management to investigate the matter and take firm action against the lecturer involved.
"Statements insulting and disparaging the B40 group should never be made by any party," wrote Rasydan in a statement today, 30 March.
"I represent the entire UiTM Alumni Association Malaysia family in urging the university's top management to investigate and take necessary action because the said lecturer has damaged the image of our beloved university."
"The lecturer involved needs to understand the situation that the country is facing, especially with the pandemic that has caused many to face unstable economic conditions."
Mahasiswa Keadilan Malaysia — the student wing of People's Justice Party (PKR) — has also urged the university to take action against the lecturer for her discrimination
In a Facebook post this morning, Mahasiswa Keadilan Malaysia said the lecturer behaved in a manner that was "lacking empathy, unethical, and unprofessional".
"Although we understand that the lecturer was scolding because the course needs students to have laptops, but her actions of belittling the student until he said his family could not afford [a laptop] was unacceptable and arrogant," they said.
The party added that anyone with information regarding the student is encouraged to contact them so that they may provide him the help he needs.
SAYS has also reached out to UiTM Perak for a statement and has yet to receive a reply.
