We should abolish the quota system of the Public Services Department (PSD) scholarships once and for all. Well, maybe not now… but it should be made as a goal that should be achieved in near future.
Why should racial issue came into questions when deciding who is more fitting to accept a government scholarship for further education? It should be based on their academic achievement, the economic background, and to some extend their co-curricular achievements.
Lots of fuss have been created since the government decided to increase the non-bumi quotas from 10% to 45%. The most recent argument came from Umno Youth Education Bureau that it’s not a good idea because increasing the quota for non-bumiputras without increasing the actual number of scholarships has drastically affected the bumiputras.
Their statement is going to be hit badly by fella bloggers, but I can see their point though… the JPA could have increase the overall allocation of sponsorship so that more non-bumis could get it while the amount of bumis benefited from the scholarships could stay unaffected. Although I’m calling for a fair for all system… realistically, it takes time to make it happen.
The bumis have to start adjusting the mindset of being protected by the government in every sector. Education is a different thing than economics… while we might need NEP and other policies to bridge the social-economic gap, we don’t need a policy in education because there is no gap to be bridged…
Having rich parents probably means that the particular people will have a head start with their economic status, but having rich parents doesn’t mean much when it comes to education… every Malaysians have to start from the same point with our studies, and every Malaysians have equal chances to excel in eduation.
Malaysia is facing tougher competition with globalisation these days, we need to compete with foreigners in every field… and isn’t it ridiculous that Malaysians are afraid to compete with fellow Malaysians? How are we supposed to compete with others when we can’t even compete fairly among ourselves?
PSD scholarships should be allocated to all Malaysians and evaluated by specific qualifications regardless of races. The real concern for PSD is that lots of Malaysians that went to study overseas have decided not to come back… and that include lots of bumis, mostly in fact since that we don’t have much non-bumi PSD scholars yet.
Meanwhile, if you have any confusions about the PSD scholarship, the JPA actually has a nice FAQ to cover the common questions.