The Star actually heads the article as "Malay Students Affected" while the superman from PSD who made the statement is Ahmad Ikmal Ismail. First of all, scholarships are meant to be given BASED ON MERIT. Earlier in May this year, another superman, the Parliamentery Affairs Minister, Nazri Abdul Aziz, said that scholarship quotas for Non-Bumiputeras are to increase. Both stories just don't make sense!
My view is that if scholarships are to be given based on merit, then complains that 'Malay Students' (as defined by The Star newspaper) are getting less shouldn't exist at all. Second, how on earth is it that bumiputeras and non-bumiputeras get segregated AT ALL? Why the need to divide? OI, KITA SAMA SAMA MALAYSIANS! Wei, superman Nazri Abdul Aziz, you and I are both Malaysians, so why must I be labelled non-bumi while you are bumi? I was born and bred in Malaysia, Johor some more where UMNO won the state in the recent elections.
Likewise, how do we, the public, know that students who get scholarships are judged based on their exam results? I've heard of 'pelajar cemerlang' 10A SPM students wanting to do Engineering or Medicine, but getting scholarships to do Forrestry or Fishery Services. Perhaps a student who was dropped out of the quota? Or is it a deliberate attempt to meet the quota but give the lousiest choice of scholarships so that this pelajar cemerlang will enrol himself into Taylor's/Sunway/Inti/Metropolitan/Sedaya College. Comon Malaysia, there must be change. You're not kidding this generation of children. 2012 elections is just a few years away and by then the people whom you've shunned will have aged to 'votable' age....
I have three suggestions:
1. Get rid of the bumi/non-bumi statements. Segregation is the road to revolution.
2. Base scholarships on MERIT.
3. Publicize the scholarship handouts through significant medias without prejudice.
4. Oh, since Ahmad Ikmal Ismail is the 'chairman' of the PSD group, then get rid of the chairman, his board members, and re-elect a balance of 40% non-bumi and 60% bumiputeras in the board. And put a Malaysian Chinese as the Chairman. Lets see how things are by then. ( I suspect this may happen in 2013 though...)
For those of you are have reached this part of the blog, I am attaching the article from The Star:
Malay students affected
PETALING JAYA: Increasing the quota for non-bumiputras for Public Service Department (PSD) scholarships without increasing the actual number of scholarships has drastically affected the bumiputras, the Umno Youth Education Bureau said.
Its chairman Ahmad Ikmal Ismail said while the bureau agreed with the Government to give more scholarships to non-bumiputras, it did not agree with the way it was done.
“The quota for non-bumiputras has increased from 10% to 45% but the number of total scholarships has remained at 2,000.”
Ahmad Ikmal said this meant that scholarships were being taken from the bumiputras to be given to the non-bumiputras.
“We object to this move because it now means that 700 scholarships for bumiputra students are gone,” he said.
Ahmad Ikmal said a better way would be to use the New Economic Policy concept to increase the number of total scholarships. He said this was to ensure that the bumiputras were not affected and the non-bumiputras would get even more opportunities.
