Letters
by Tan Hao Chong
I am a 2008 SPM student ranked top 7th in a premier school at Johor Bahru (S.M.K. Sultan Ismail) .I scored 11A1 and 1A2 in Chinese in SPM. I applied for JPA and was rejected after appeal. I was not even offered for local institutions. I am active in co-curricular activities and I believe I have done well in my interview.
The rejects had brought many sleepless nights for me and my parents. What is most sad is that students of poorer results were randomly selected in an attempt to confuse the public. My mum took the matter to the Sin Chew Press and Nanyang Press. Thanks to the papers the matter was brought to the attention of many.
I am writing to you as going to Mr. Lim is our only and last hope for justice now.
Here are some of the facts:
Out of the 800 appeals made through MCA, 250 were of straight A1s as tabulated below and as far as I know , only 69 cases were successful
No of A1 No. of students
15 1
14 1
13 9
12 64
11 110
9&10 65
Immediately after SPM, I attended a seminar organized by MCA Youth in Johor Bahru and was excited to hear the announcement by Dato’ Wee that 20% ie 400 out of 2000 scholarship will be awarded to students with good results regardless of race, economic background, CCA and interviews. Obviously , this was not done. We are disappointed with MCA for failing to give us justice.
The head of JPA promised to publish the results of successful applicants and until now nothing was announced.
By changing the name of scholarship and promises of more transparency in future is only going to help the future applicants, which is very unfair to current applicants. We would have missed our lifetime opportunity.
We understand that you are going to bring this matter to the parliament. This is a good news for many of us .We hope your action will bring justice to us and our confidence in the education system and future of Malaysia.
#1 by ekin on Monday, 15 June 2009 - 5:57 pm
WOW! Suddenly the 3 stooges became DOGS! WOW! They bark non-stop! GREAT! HA HA HA
So what if people knew about it? I serve to remind on this and giving examples. Thank GOD I’m never like you stooges, so DUMB and so full of sh*t. All you know about is RACISM and Politics. What else you know? Dare called me uneducated and talk nonsense? The who lot of people knew who you are and what you talk as you’d said yourself. Well, I don’t mind, you can continue to pass your @ss on me, but if you want someone to lick it, ask the stooges. They are the lapdogs of UMNO BN. And, put it this way, they are the best from UMNO BN. Nothing more…So Adios at 13th GE. Continue your licking and eating poo of your UMNO BN @ssesssss… HA HA HA
#2 by nandeska on Monday, 15 June 2009 - 6:07 pm
Hey Tan, look else where, don’t waste your time. Try applying Singapore if possible. We’ve been thought not to be dependent on govt/MCA or other neanderthal politcal parties, govt agencies.
Look not all is lost, worst case scenario do form 6 and take STPM. STPM gurantees place in whatever course you can opt for. Its not easy, but hey who says life’s easy.
#3 by TomThumb on Monday, 15 June 2009 - 6:38 pm
what can you say about a semi educated semi literate retard who thinks all opposition to his views is motivated by political affiliations.
#4 by Jason Ng on Monday, 15 June 2009 - 6:55 pm
hope u have the money to go overseas to study, and then never come back to contribute to this country.
#5 by wombatahem on Monday, 15 June 2009 - 7:00 pm
Hi Hao Chong,
Well done and congratulations. Do not be disheartened. Rely on yourself to help yourself. I may be wrong (and please enlighten me if I am), but as far as I am concerned, your chances are higher, not definite, to get into local universities with your SPM result and active participation in co-curriculum activities. As for JPA, I have no idea as I have never gone through the JPA process.
Let us be practical and realistic. We do not want to be seen as a beggar. There are many other avenues to turn to:
1. You may want to do STPM so that you may gain the necessary qualification to enter into local universities. You may get loan from PTPTN with relatively low interest rate. If you can graduate with 1st class honours, they may convert your loan into scholarship, meaning you do not have to pay back a single cent (Please check if PTPTN still maintains this practice or not, I can’t be too sure. It has been so long since I have graduated from my degree, 6 years to be exact).
2. Thanks to the stiff competition, a lot of private colleges offer 100% scholarship (on tuition fees mostly) for students who study with them at Pre-U level until the Degree level. You may want to check out on those colleges, especially in Klang Valley.
3. Scout and apply for other scholarships, be it locally or abroad. Search from the Internet and get the info. If you have the chance, you may choose to work abroad. Forget patriotism and be realistic. If you are able to find better job opportunities in another country, why not work there? This is a globalised world and the mobility of human capital is so high nowadays.
My point is there is no use complaining, arguing what is fair and unfair etc. as this is the current state of affairs. It will never change in many years to come and I think it will never change. I will be amused and bemused if change ever takes place. So be dependent on yourself. I wish you all the best. Just remember that when a door closes, another one opens.
#6 by OrangRojak on Monday, 15 June 2009 - 7:22 pm
Hao Chong – if you fancied the experience of overseas study but don’t have the money to go to Oxford with Baginda, and aren’t thrilled by the option of an expensive degree from a University that nobody has ever heard of in a cold country, you could try an English language degree from somewhere like Payap in northern Thailand. I visit a friend who is Head of Department there from time to time, and the English language Computing course seems professionally run and the learning environment high quality. I imagine there could be others just as good.
The campus is huge, modern, peaceful, and the students seem happy (everyone I’ve met in Thailand seems happy, maybe it’s just compared to people in Malaysia). They had students on the English-language Computing course from USA, Australia, China, as well as Thailand last time I visited (and a lecturer from KL, though I think he has since left).
Don’t dismiss the option because it’s Thailand – I think if you visited Chiang Mai and that U in particular, you would be impressed. The most important thing is to get a good degree from a credible University. That doesn’t mean you have to go to Harvard or give up entirely – there are plenty of places that will give you good life skills, plenty of wonderful memories, a decent degree, and yet won’t cost the Earth. Being only slightly abroad, you may not suffer quite so much from ‘dislocation’ – perhaps you won’t become a ‘banana’!
#7 by limkamput on Monday, 15 June 2009 - 7:55 pm
For once Jeffery is talking some sense.
I have one more tip for the opposition with regard to money for education.
Previously, most local public universities are almost fully subsidised by the government with students paying very minimal fees. With the advent of PTPTN, most students are asked to take loans to pay for the tuition and subsequently tuition fees are raised substantially (although still subsidised especially for more expensive courses like dentistry and medicine).
My question is this: Is overall allocation to public universities remain the same given that most public universities now charge “market fees”. It is my casual observation that most universities have money growing to their ears and many professors are jolly “seminaring” and conferencing overseas. Ask Treasury allocation/per student before the fee increase and allocation/per student after the fee increase. Check it out.
#8 by katdog on Monday, 15 June 2009 - 9:07 pm
Oh, another poor sorry sob complaining of unfair treatment by the government. Well boy time for you to wake up. The government ain’t fair. It never was.
And honestly, a lot of these chinese think they are very smart with all their 20 A1′s etc. Actually they are very dumb. I mean, you must be a very dumb person to have believed in the lies that MCA told you.
Even though MCA has lied to the chinese for 20 years with broken promises after broken promises, you actually believed what these politicians said? A smart person would have realized that it was nothing more than BS to make themselves look pretty to the chinese community. Then next, you approach DAP as if they have the power to change anything?!
So, although you got 12 A’s and came from a premier school, no, i don’t think you are smart enough to deserve a scholarship. Don’t believe me? Try and get a scholarship from Singapore instead and see. If you can get a scholarship there than i stand corrected.
#9 by private_undergrad on Tuesday, 16 June 2009 - 12:39 am
Dear THC,
C’mon get a life! Nobody owes you anything. While your excellent results should be commended, it’s not a ticket for you to ask for any ‘alms’ from anybody or even the govt.
My suggestion to you is to think out of box and get out of the rat race which will never end. Stop chasing shadows. Be street-smart and not only book-smart (sounds more like a book worm to me hehe). There are many opportunities out there besides the ‘coveted’ PSD scholarships for SPM school leavers, which is not even guaranteed for you to even get admitted to top unis in the world.
#10 by frankyapp on Tuesday, 16 June 2009 - 2:12 am
Hi katdog,please soften your language and don’t scare the SPM boy,Ok. Please be constructive,not distructive,be positive,not negative,be encouraging ,not discouraging to a 18 year old.I sincerely hope you do not mean what you have written or said.Maybe an apology to the boy or the boy’s parent will be appropriate here. Remember it’s better to be humane than being rude.
#11 by gl989 on Thursday, 25 June 2009 - 11:25 pm
i was the candidate of SPM of 2008
my result is quite ok but not with flying colour
just with 7A1 3A2 and 2B3
i applied for many scholarship,
just like JPA, Matrix and UPU
Unluckily, i didn’t get the scholarship of JPA
I didn’t feel disappointed because the competitor
have much of strength compered one
So, i put a great hope on Matrix and UPU
when i was in PLKN,
my sister text me
“boy, i checked for u already,
u r lost from the matrix”.
That is ok.
I can take the blow.
But, even the UPU,
i also can’t get it!
Oh GOD!!
What am i wrong?!
Even the rayuan of UPU and Matrix also i couldn’t get
Haiz..
My freind, a Malay girl, who just get 8A’s got
both of the offer
But I? …
I feel very sad..
I was so hard to study during SPM,
when i took my result,
i thought i can reduce my parent financial burden,
but what happen afterward?
Now, i am a FORM 6 student without a constant class
moving here and there all around the schooltime
so tired to study…
i didn’t say who did unfair or what.
All what i say was my experience to be shared.
I hope MP Lim Kit Siang can hear something from me
and make sure this will not to be repeated on the next student
like me again..
thx
#12 by Albert86 on Saturday, 24 October 2009 - 10:16 pm
Hi gl989 and others, i am currently a final year UTM students. Previously similar to gl989, me also face all the problems been said earlier by him..
Well, here i want to say that actually it is not bad to study STPM as you grow up all your strength there. With a comparison of Matrix students or STPM students, u will notice in future that most STPM students are highly competitive in all Universities in Malaysia.. (no need to say the CGPA of STPM students compared to Matrix students, most STPM students get higher CGPA than Matrix students)
Do not under estimate STPM.. try to learn to study independently in STPM and you will be grateful in future that you did study STPM.