Top scorers deserve scholarships, current system murky
By Wong Choon Mei (Suara Keadilan)
Pakatan Rakyat leaders have demanded that all top scorers in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia examination – irrespective of ethnic group – be granted scholarships by the Public Services Department. They also urged the government to clean up the current system and inject into it a greater degree of meritocracy.
“It is the taxpayers’ money after all, so we should ensure that the best and brightest people get the scholarships in a transparent manner,” PKR Seri Setia assemblyman Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad told a public forum on government scholarships.
The SPM is equivalent to the British ‘O’ levels and is mostly undertaken by students between 16 and 17 years of age. In recent years, complaints have mounted that many bright students – some with as many as 11As – were being increasingly sidelined by the PSD.
Most of the grouses are from the non-Malay groups, who are struggling with rising education costs both within and outside the country.
But for decades, the Umno-BN government has hidden behind the country’s controversial New Economic Policy drafted in the early 1970s – citing it as the basis for why Malay students were granted the bulk of scholarships.
Constitutional experts have however rejected this defence, saying the NEP – which aimed at poverty eradication – actually provided for the rights of all needy Malaysians.
Where is meritocracy, where is transparency?
In particular, Kuala Selangor MP and PAS research chief Dzulkifli Ahmad condemned the lack of respect for meritocracy by the Umno-BN government in its decision-making.
Dzulkifli warned that it boded ill for the nation’s future if young Malaysians were “subjected to this kind of poor leadership and governance.” He added that meritocracy was “universal and very Islamic”
“What is the status of rights in Malaysia if even matters of education cannot be resolved in a just manner?,” Dzulkifli asked.
DAP Youth chief Anthony Loke also criticised the lack of transparency in the current system. Although there were requirements that 20 per cent of scholarships be granted based on merit, there was no clarity on how it defined the term ‘merit’ or ‘disadvantaged’ – two core criteria in the qualification process.
“We want transparency so that the full list of JPA scholarships are made known to the public and we have raised this in Parliament, only to be told ‘the process is fair and just but we don’t reveal names’,” said Anthony, who is also the Rasah MP.
Pakatan will support a supplementary bill to increase the budget allocation
DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang also slammed the cabinet for not disclosing the full set of criteria and list of recipients, demanding that immediate public disclosure be made.
There are currently about 10,000 local and 2,000 overseas scholarships and this should be made public information “in the name of fairness, accountability and transparency”.
“If not, then the Najib Cabinet is even worse than the ‘half-past-six’ cabinet of the previous PM Abdullah Badawi, as condemned by former PM Mahathir Mohamad,” Kit Siang said.
The veteran politician also said if there was insufficient budget, the Pakatan was ready to support any supplementary Bill in Parliament to immediately increase the allocation to RM1 billion. The amount currently set aside for PSD scholarships is RM700 million.
Pakatan leaders urged the cabinet, which is due to meet today, to take immediate action.
They reiterated that talent and intellectual excellence was a national treasure and should be nurtured for the greater good of the country, rather than now, when the existing system of discrimination based on race sparked unhappiness and a consequent brain drain to other countries.
“Whether it is a Malay or Chinese who is serving the community, all Malaysians benefit from it,” said PAS’s Dzulkifli.
