Scholarships a Malay Special Right

As much as I hate to admit it, PERKASA said something right for once – “Scholarships are the special rights of Malays under Article 153. The government and PSD must first make sure the rights of Bumiputeras are prioritised, a violation of the constitution in any form is a crime.”

Article 153(3) text:

The Yang di-Pertuan Agong may, in order to ensure in accordance with Clause (2) the reservation to Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak of positions in the public service and of scholarships, exhibitions and other educational or training privileges or special facilities, give such general directions as may be required for that purpose to any Commission to which Part X applies or to any authority charged with responsibility for the grant of such scholarships, exhibitions or other educational or training privileges or special facilities; and the Commission or authority shall duly comply with the directions.

So, we should stop complaining about the unfairness of the scholarships being given out by the government. It is unfair by design and decree. If we want to have a fair system, we will need to amend Article 153 of the constitution and that is unlikely to happen within my life-time.

Unfortunately, they said something else that I think is right as well – “Make overseas scholarships only for post-graduate studies. This can save the outflow of money overseas and give due recognition to local public and private universities in the country.”

By sending all our best and brightest out, we are unfairly shackling our local universities by setting targets for them to shine as regional champions while depriving them of the human resource that they need to do it, all at once.