Let's be responsible and pay up our PTPTN loans

LETTER | Many current and former university students are in jubilant mood after the new Minister of Education Mazlee Malik made an official announcement that former and current university students who are earning less than RM4,000 per month may no longer be required to pay back their PTPTN loans.

As a PTPTN borrower, I would somehow welcome the announcement to stop the borrowers from being blacklisted from leaving the country but at the same time, I disagree with the sentiment because I feel that they should be responsible for their own loans and pay them back at least with a minimum amount monthly.

A loan is a loan and it is our responsibility as borrowers to pay back the money we have borrowed. We recently heard that from our Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad that our debt has reached a staggering amount of RM1 trillion.

What can we do to help out as citizens of Malaysia? The least we could do is help out the current government by paying off our own personal debts or loans starting with the PTPTN.

As a borrower and a graduating post-graduate student, I definitely do not earn RM4,000 but I am definitely willing to ease the burden of my country by paying a minimum sum every month for what I borrowed from the PTPTN.

I would like to urge my fellow PTPTN borrowers to do the same as our country needs all the help it can get from the people and the most basic thing that young Malaysians can do is to pay back your PTPTN loans.

Why can’t you afford to pay your loans if you can afford to travel? We can talk about accountability and transparency all year long but what is the use if we ourselves are not accountable for our own loans?

I am not only asking these borrowers to ease some of the burdens on the country but they will also ease some of the burdens on themselves too.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.