Of competence, scholarship and your new neighbor with a funny accent

When we vote for candidates to form a government, we really should be looking at their capability in leading the nation, degree of diligence in discharging their official duties, prudence with tax payers’ money, ability to form and implement sensible policies to bring the nation forward.

And it really does not have much to do with some dubious asshole of a dubious person or some dodgy black and white Thai pornography or colour-blindness of issue-focused individuals.

Which bring me to the 2 current issues: JPA scholarship and “purification” of illegal foreign workers.

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http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/6/6/nation/8844841&sec=nation
Monday June 6, 2011

Comprehensive exercise soon to legalise and send illegal immigrants home

SEREMBAN: A large-scale legalisation and amnesty exercise is expected to be held next month to reduce the number of illegal immigrants in Malaysia, estimated at about two million.

The programme, which will take three weeks, will be codenamed “6P” pendaftaran (registration), pemutihan (legalisation), pengampunan (amnesty), pemantauan (supervision), penguatkuasaan (enforcement) and pengusiran (deportation).

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1 immediate striking point is that capable and bona-fide Malaysians are denied what they are qualified for and entitled to, since their tax paying family members would have paid into the scholarship fund; contrast with those foreigners who broke our country's laws, and yet get rewarded with amnesty for illegal entry and exemption from persecution, provided it is paid for.

What kind of encouragement are we sending out to the potential illegal immigrants as well as those who smuggled and employed them?

Would the Pendatang-focused right wingers, who screamed for scholarships to be denied to rightful Malaysians, would also scream against such privileges awarded to bona fide Pendatangs diluting the percentages of their pool?


If they can come up with gems like this:

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http://www.malaysia-today.net/mtcolumns/newscommentaries/40881-stop-scholarships-to-students-from-vernacular-schools

Free Malaysia Today) - Malay rights group, Perkasa has suggested that the government limit its Public Service Department (PSD) scholarships ‘strictly’ to non-Malay students who have completed their education ‘exclusively in national school’s.

In making this call Perkasa secretary general, Syed Hassan Syed Ali said it would be unfair to award scholarships to students whose parents have no faith in the national education system.
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Bodoh, they pay taxes too and probably more than you ever do.

Go on, what are you going to say about that?


According to “my brother did not do it/I don’t know my brother very well” minister, a fee of RM400 (RM300 for a penalty and RM100 for processing fee) is collectable from an estimated 2,000,000 illegal foreign workers.

He failed to explain 1) the cause for gross incompetence of Malaysian authorities in letting in so many illegal workers; and 2) how would the additional RM800 million were to be used.

How can Malaysians benefit from this additional revenue? What real benefit these additional revenue means for Malaysians, really……

On one hand,

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http://www.malaysianmirror.com/media-buzz-detail/6-nation/53586-aim-of-subsidy-rationalisation-is-to-improve-peoples-living-standard-says-pm

Aim Of Subsidy Rationalisation Is To Improve People's Living Standard, Says PM


Sunday, 05 June 2011 07:16

KUALA LUMPUR – The government’s subsidy rationalisation is not a measure to eliminate subsidies but to provide reasonable amounts of subsidy to the eligible and needy target groups and sectors, Najib Tun Razak said on Saturday.

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then on the other:

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http://www.mmail.com.my/content/52747-najib-defends-100storey-warisan-merdeka-tower-plan
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010 20:39:00

Najib defends 100-storey Warisan Merdeka tower plan




Nice huh?

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The annual JPA scholarship debacle is costing the nation current dollars and talent as well as future well-being and prospect. God knows how many capable doctors, scientists, engineers and other professionals has the nation lost over the decades, simply due to positively incompetent and possibly racist little napoleons who I find tempting to question their own academic qualification as well as their sanity to judge and award in the first place.

In my SPM batch of a very long time ago, the 3 all A-s students did not get even a reject letter from JPA. 1 of the top scorer was the male head perfect cum leader of police cadet who went onto to be awarded with Lee Kuan Yew’s Asean scholarship and last I know, is a surgeon in U.S. while the female head perfect went on to score all As in her STPM examinations and obtained a scholarship from a local bank and have a career in banking.

I have yet to see JPA coming out with a rebuttal that they are race-base in judgment and award or prove their credentials to decide the academic future and livelihood prospect of young hopeful Malaysians who are probably academically and intellectually superior than them.

JPA department overseeing scholarship is little like 19th century Africa. Its details are mysterious to the general public although we know it is there; populated by not well known tribes whose logic and ways of life are unfamiliar to the general civil society. It promises untold riches and yet getting to the reward, depends on luck, adventure but no certainty of what are standard required criteria.






The question is, how hard is it for JPA to publish the criteria and number of places available for each course before the announcement of examination results; as well as the names and track records of both successful and unsuccessful applicants to be accountable to the public and applicants specifically?




If Americans can put a man on the moon and Badawi can put a good looking tourist to space so why can’t the JPA office put up an annual listing when all the relevant data is fed to them by the applicants?

A fundamental question is, why studying overseas is so much sought after by our best and brightest? Do we see top scoring Australians, Britons, Yankies, Singaporeans crying their eyeballs out because they can’t get a scholarship to study in 1Malaysia?


Why can’t we make the ringgit stronger to improve Malaysians’ purchase power parity by stopping outflow of ringgit by making studying abroad less attractive?

Is Malaysia such a lousy place for living, studying and learning that our young, energetic and ambitious can’t wait to escape from?





We have unique students who do not like to be too competitive, I wonder how would this make our education institution move up the world rankings.

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http://blog.limkitsiang.com/2010/01/30/khalid-%E2%80%93-hands-off-respect-and-uphold-university-of-malaya-vice-chancellor-ghauth-jasmon%E2%80%99s-decision-on-moratorium-and-suspension-of-campus-polls/

The campus e-voting system is most unsatisfactory and even undemocratic as the students are not given the chance to observe the whole voting process and the e-counting of votes cannot be done.

……, students need to log in into the voting system using their matrix number and this will cause the worried amongst the students to vote some particular candidates.

…… condemn the entering of FRU into UKM and the arrest of two students who took part in the student demonstration; and the disqualification by the UPM administration of the winning status of 7 student representatives which is ridiculous and unacceptable, just because they had made some campaign statements in Facebook.


….. once again prove that they are not mature or professional in the management of the public universities to restore academic freedom and excellence so that they can become top-ranking universities recognized worldwide as leading institutions of higher learning.

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Is Malaysia a place where employment opportunity and career prospect are not good enough that young people with ambition feels that they need to go abroad and study, so that they can get into countries where their prospect of earning a decent living and fulfilling their potential is so much better?

The need and gimmick in establishing Talent Corp to entice, plead and beg while Singaporeans resented the high inflow of non-Singaporean professionals probably give an answer the above question.

Are Malaysians still trapped by colonial mentality where everything is better on the other side?


How come after more than 50 years of Independence, Malaysia has not achieved a semblance of the economic and social development of its former colonial masters so that Malaysians feel proud and happy to get educated and find a living within its own country?

So what the hell are we paying our taxes for? What kind of competence are we getting from the externally elected political coalition to run the country?

My vote is cast. Have yours?

1 comment:

  1. If Malaysians want a change, they should think carefully who is vote. Vote only those who are competent in their tasks, vote only for those who practise fairness, vote only those who govern well with no corruption.

    ReplyDelete