A noon meeting with the Public Services Department Director-General Tan Sri Ismail Adam in Putrajaya has been scheduled on the subject of another round of injustices in the PSD scholarship awards, out of line with the “1Malaysia” slogan of Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

The subject has provoked national debate and soul-searching. I reproduce three emails below:

(1) From Allan Tan Kean Yang

Warm greetings. I’m from Penang, an 11A1’s, 1B3 SPM 2009 scorer. I’d be pleased if you could kindly consider
my appeal for the JPA scholarship. The results are as below:

Malay Language – A1
English Language – A1
1119 English – A1
Chinese – B3
Additional Maths – A1
Modern Maths – A1
Moral Studies – A1
Physics – A1
Chemistry – A1
Biology – A1
History – A1
English for Science and Technology – A1

I’m also shortlisted for the JPA interview at Kepala Batas. Yet, I failed to get the scholarship for KEJURUTERAAN course to UK and those English-based medium countries.

Besides, I’m actively involved in my cocurriculum activities, a Deputy Head Prefect in Chung Ling High School, Penang; a school representative for Chess Club to participate in Chess OPEN tournaments; a Leo Secretary for Leo Club of CLHS; I’ve also have had national PENGLIBATAN as well as states PENGLIBATAN and achievements.

I’m quite disappointed that I’m not being offered even a local scholarship in which some of them who did not do as good as me in the SPM Exam get one. I doubt that I did badly for the interview, not to mention I was a National Service trainee at Balik Pulau White Resort for the 1st Batch.

Last but not least, thanks for considering my appeal and all the best to y’al

on the 19th May 2009 as seen from this link.
http://tonypua.blogspot.com/2009/05/jpa-scholarship-scheme-seeking-fair.html

Thanks for fighting for our rights.

(2) From Meng Beh:

This is nothing new and happens every year.

What is MCA and Gerakan do ? Can they be more proactive, rather than re-active?

Why must they wait till people’s complain then react?

That’s why chinese is so fed-up and give up hopes to MCA and Gerakan.

This is their responsibility to ensure that all good student ( regardless of race) will obtain the scholar ship to further thier study.

And please do not try to claim credit. — please do not expect a vote of support when election come…this is thier responsibility and accoutability, do not hope to use it to exchange for vote.

(3) From Tang Mei San: –

The annual grouses on the unfair PSD scholarship awards are followed by the government’s annual promise to be fair and just in allocation. Almost inevitably, the MCA will step out to help voice the stories of disgruntled and unsuccessful applicants, promising appeals and calling for more equal allocations.

It’s hard to not think that the PSD Scholarships have became an instrument for MCA to gain political mileage, considering the fact that their annual “efforts”, while outright and loud, has never once succeeded in solving the problem.

In Chua Soi Lek’s blog posting on PSD Scholarships, I agree with him that it is impossible to satisfy all top students and I also concur with him that a string of distinctions cannot be an effective measure to determine the student’s eligibility for a scholarship.

But at the end of Chua’s posting, he resorted to the same old calling for more scholarships – an annual calling by the MCA that Malaysians have yet to see its effectiveness.

The root of the problem with the PSD scholarships is the perceived wide incongruity between the government’s promises to be fair in allocation and the reality in awarding. It is this perceived unfairness that has been the ground of the annual grouses by top students and their parents.

I dare not say that the reality in the PSD is justice and that the people’s perception has merely been unreasonably fueled by the media and political parties. But the point is, none of us have a tinge of clear understanding of what is happening since the PSD has never clarified the criteria used in awarding the scholarships.

Hence, I think a good initiative to reduce the intensity of the grouses will be for the PSD director-general to clarify on the system and criteria of awarding, whether they are based on results, merit, race, family income etc.

Another important step to be taken is to explain to unsuccessful applicants what are the viable alternatives to the PSD scholarships, as I am very sure that the PSD cannot be the one and only channel to a tertiary education. This, I think, should be the priority of political parties, rather than trying to outdo each other in calls for more justice.

I also often wonder if the top students and their parents would start learning about the leaders in the government and opposition were it not for the sake of appealing for scholarships. As we the people often accuse our politicians for being corrupted and excessive politicking, I think there are many of us who are only in our ADUNs and MPs’ service centres for self-seeking purpose. Just another food for thought…