This entry started out as a response to a blog comment. But since it turned out to be rather lengthy, I decided that it might as well be a whole new blog entry on its own. I would like to first state that although New Era is used as an example here, it is not any form of indictment. It was just the first institution to pop into my head, since it is located near a school that I once went to. Nostalgia.
UiTM and New Era are both essentially single-ethnic institutions. You can say that they are different and yet the same. One is founded by MARA, with its clear mandate on providing direct intervention towards the bumiputera. The other is founded by Dong Jiao Zhong (Chinese Education Association), which is clearly focused on only one particular group of people. Anyone who does not read Chinese or uses Konqueror will have difficulties surfing their website.
While I cannot prove that New Era discriminates against any particular group of people, neither can I prove that they don’t. The official wording on their website is: “Committed to multi-cultural, holistic and socially responsible education.” However, reality paints a slightly different picture.
I checked the latest list of students admitted, only to find that it is 100% of one ethnic group. So, if I extrapolate this and assume that every intake has the same composition, then I can safely assume that it is a single ethnic institute. But since I do not know the actual numbers, I could possibly be wrong. So, let’s just call it 95±5% using engineering notation. The question then is whether this is by circumstance or by choice.
It is possible to argue that UiTM is single ethnic by circumstance, its circumstance being that it is founded by MARA. Therefore, it is mandated to discriminate against certain groups of people. But at least, it is honest about it. It is quite possible that New Era is single ethnic by circumstance and that nobody from any other ethnic group bothers to apply. This is not true because there is a single Malay on its waiting list.
But it can also be argued that it is made difficult for people from other groups to apply, which is discrimination by definition. Looking at the application form, there is only a box for a Chinese name and an English name. The name Mohamad bin Abdullah is neither Chinese nor English. So, the forms were obviously not designed with everyone in mind. But since my Chinese is as useful as my French, I may have misunderstood the forms.
Some will argue that New Era is privately funded and can therefore do whatever it pleases, which is perfectly understandable enough. However, UiTM is MARA funded and can therefore do whatever MARA pleases. But ultimately, both institutions are funded by individuals like you and me. So, the argument is moot.
Personally, I think that until the day that everyone in Malaysia is willing to give up their last bastions of any racial identity, we will always have racial based institutions that continue to propagate racial based thinking and further polarise the country. So, if we want all the walls to be taken down, the only way is to take down everything race based starting with all the political parties.
PS: I wrote this while half awake and feeling hungry. So, E&OE as usual.
Sybreon Ones Nought 
In the form I believe the “English name” simply refers to a name spelt using English alphabets, so “Mohammed bin Ali” is what they want. Some Malay/Indian student studying in Chinese school do have Chinese name, which are given by the Chinese teacher.
New Era always try to diversify the student body. In fact if you check out the financial aid section, they offer full scholarship to non-Chinese Malaysian student. Chinese educators are not the type of fascist as most Malaysians assumed. The main problem with Malaysia is people are polarized badly. People from different background do not communicate with each other at all.
While you may see New Era offering full scholarships to non-Chinese Malaysians as a good thing, I see it as a bad thing. There is no reason for race to be a determining factor in scholarship awards, period.
The general consensus from other discussions is that most educators and former students would not want to see the loss of the vernacular schools. Same with MARA for their schools. In my opinion, both sides are being facist about it.
Personally, I could go on and on about this but that’ll just end up being another blog.
Oh…I am so tempted to write a long comment…haha…but that would mean I am going to take up your time when you are in the mist of writing and finalising your thesis. Maybe another time 😛 I think visiting you in Cambridge to disturb you is probably better than writing and reading your replies on the screen 😉
Hah! I’m going home very soon. So, if you want to come, you’d better come fast!
Well I see granting scholarship to under-represented group of students as an effort to diversify the student body. And there should be another merit-based scholarship regardless of race.
I can also go on and on about the vernacular issue. It is very hard to convince the extremist in both camps to tear down the “walls” over night. But what is lacking here is proper communication channel between people with different thoughts.
You believe that using race as a criteria is acceptable under certain circumstances, which is incidentally the same position taken by the government. I disagree and consider it hypocritical, but mine is a minority position.
Communication requires that both sides are open to all suggestions. As long as any side maintains an “over my dead body” stance, it will never happen. So, I don’t see it happening anytime soon.
In US they also implement the “affirmative action” to increase the number of minority student in college. So taking in student based on race is necessary to correct the social imbalance due to historical reason. I agree that such measure has to be temporary and cannot be extended forever.
In Malaysia people tends take critics personally and cannot accept open conversations. Take the BAR forum for instance.It is sad but I agree that healthy conversation will not happen in Malaysia anytime soon.
New Era College opens application to all races, but Mara Colleges do not even give a single chance to non-Malays. This is the main difference, we can’t blame new era college for only having chinese students, as not they don’t allow, but they can’t get application of other ethics, while the Mara Colleges set the rule that non-malays students are not allowed to even apply.
I have already addressed this earlier. You see one as right and the other as wrong. I see both as wrong. They are different in theory, similar in outcome. No good will come out of either one.
I sort of agree with Ying Fei about the differences. I also agree with Shawn about the outcome. Since I am not a 1 or 0 person like computers, I do think that in terms of outcome, New Era did not put enough effort whilst Mara Colleges did even allow a try. So, i don’t see one as right and the other as wrong, but I see one slightly more wrong than the other. Shawn, I agree with your last bastion idea but not with the way you think i.e. 1 or 0.
I learned a new phrase recently: “same difference”.