Scholarships and Brain Drain

PM Najib announced that as part of his 1Malaysia programme, all students regardless of race will be awarded PSD scholarship if they obtain 9A+ for their SPM.

I applaud the announcement. In the spirit of justice and equity, his announcement couldn’t have come sooner. In fact it is overdue. Outstanding Malaysian students regardless of race should be given assistance to further develop their talents, for the betterment of Malaysia.

As expected, the only voice of dissent came from PERKASA. They want 67% of the scholarships to go to Malays. I have no problems with that – as long as the Malays qualify for the award. For arguments sake, let’s say there are 100 students with 9A+ and only 60 of them are Malays and the rest are non-bumis; the 67% rule would mean that only 29 or 30 non-bumi students will be eligible for scholarships. Do we turn away the remaining 10/11?

In anycase, when the PM says ALL students with 9A+ WILL get a PSD scholarship that means ALL WILL get scholarships, regardless of their racial background and that includes all the Malay students with 9A+, so why should PERKASA worry?

On a similar note, The Star today reported that the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop said the Government is working to woo back more than 70,000 Malaysians working overseas by reducing bureaucracy and offering better perks via the establishment of Talent Corporation next year.

Reducing bureaucracy and offering perks will tempt some of them to return but will it entice those “bitter” with the system to come back? Those who fall under this category are probably those who were refused assistance (read: not given scholarships) because they were born on the wrong side of the racial divide.

The announcement by the PM should convince them to return as they will be reassured their children will be getting equal opportunities when it come to education but PERKASA’s discontent towards the policy could make them stay away.