JUNE 27 - Dr Amri Abdullah is a busy dentist with his own clinic in Kuala Lumpur. A former Malaysian Public Service Division (JPA) scholarship student, the father of four is married to a JPA alumna.
He credits his days as a student boarder at the mostly-Chinese Penang Free School for opening his mind and giving him the edge to win the scholarship. He has passed on the spirit of muhibbah (Malay for goodwill all around) to his kids. He wants to put them in Chinese vernacular schools. Their best buddies are non-Malays.
For people like Dr Amri, it would seem obvious that the national scholarship programme he benefited from would be a good way to nurture talent - and foster racial harmony. It can only do Malaysia good if its future leaders learnt to get along better, and is surely a more strategic starting-point for unity than, say, the country’s National Service programme, which is rife with reported abuses of authority and racial spats.
The issue of who deserves Malaysia’s most prestigious public scholarships is a perennial thorn in the government’s side.
But the usual public disappointment over JPA awards became a full-blown furore in mid-May when, after interviewing 8,363 among 15,084 hopefuls, JPA denied many top scorers among them the scholarship. Most were Chinese with more than 13 A1s each.
That jarred with JPA’s approach last year, when anyone with nine or more distinctions was a shoo-in for the award.
It has not helped that, since January, JPA has changed its scholarship policy by offering four schemes: The first, and most coveted, is for overseas studies and ostensibly awarded on merit; the second is for studies locally only and subject to racial quotas; the third is for East Malaysians only; and the last is for brilliant students who are destitute or disabled.
From the total of 2,000 JPA scholarships awarded this year, about 400 were merit scholarships, 1,200 were race-based, 200 went to East Malaysians and the rest to the disadvantaged.
With 6,277 students scoring straight A1s in last year’s SPM (the equivalent of the GCE ‘O’ levels), up from 1,676 straight-A1 students in 2007, it is a case of too many students chasing too few scholarships. That is so even though the government spent RM659 million this year on the awards, compared to RM109 million in 2000.
To cater to these top scorers, the government will be increasing scholarships at local universities from 5,000 this year to 10,000 next year. The rub is that non-Malays see this as a ploy to funnel most of them into local universities while their Malay counterparts get to study overseas. Between 2000 and last year, a total of 9,160 Malays and 3,325 non-Malays were awarded overseas scholarships.
The opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition is now campaigning for a total overhaul of the public scholarship programme by slicing its pie so more of it goes around and awarding them to students already accepted into universities.
Even Deputy Education Minister Wee Ka Siong said that JPA’s current handling of the awards “makes no sense”.
The public outrage is a great pity because, over the years, JPA has gone very far in trying to be fairer to all races. This year, there is a total of 1,176 Malay and 924 non-Malay JPA scholarship students, compared to 598 Malays and 150 non-Malays in 2000.
But as Anthony Loke Siew Fook, MP for Negeri Sembilan’s opposition ward of Rasah, told The Straits Times: “Right now, the perception is that the JPA picks and chooses those for the overseas scholarships.”
Some observers go so far as to say that it is a case of civil servants – among whom 95 per cent are Malay – preferring Malays when they process applications.
Then, on June 18 in Parliament, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz reinforced that view when he refused to reveal the names and results of this year’s JPA merit scholarship holders. This was curious because he was otherwise candid as to how JPA processed the applications.
As Loke pointed out: “There’s no reason that successful applicants wouldn’t want their names revealed.”
Especially since Nazri said that 68 per cent of this year’s merit – that is, overseas – scholarship holders were non-Malays. He said the rest were Malays, which might seem disproportionate in majority-Malay Malaysia, but some among them are alleged to have scored fewer than nine distinctions. That grates, because already many Malay students are offered the coursework-based matriculation route to university, which is easier to ace than Malaysia’s tough A-Level equivalent, the Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia (STPM).
Such quirks in the education system make it all the more imperative for JPA to disclose fully what, why and how some top scorers fit its bill and others do not. That would help Malaysians understand, if not accept, the limits of meritocracy in a society as complex as Malaysia’s. – Straits Times
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The March 8 2008 elections was the first time I cast my vote for DAP because I hated UMNO more. But now having met some of the DAP reps I voted for, I lament and regret greatly. These people, like Anthony Loke, are not national nor even state level, leadership materiel. This guy demeanour is like a blo*dy thug who believes constituent members are to be tolerated and despised. Hell, have never come across Parliamentary reps of that ilk.
DAP, you need to take a good hard look at the types and quality of people representing us. I for one, will no longer be casting my votes for that thug Loke and that clown Cha. A real disappointment .. the calibre of candidates offered to us.
And I certainly take no comfort with ars*holes like Loke speaking on our behalf on the scholarship issue.