Monday, May 01, 2017

Stop Politicizing Education!!!!

Recently, a certain minister made a very intelligent remark regarding not to award JPA scholarship to people who do not support the current government.

Today, I saw a post of a Malaysian Chinese female whose name was Lam Shu Jie. She obtained straight As was but denied scholarship from Malaysia. Long story short, other countries awarded her scholarships and is currently valuable in research field globally. I would like to ask the person who post this a question: What do you expect from posting such news?

Government politicizing education is nothing new. Years ago, Mahathir introduced PPMSI and I was one of the lucky "guinea pigs" who got to enjoy the privilege. In 2013 however, some smart-ass minister (forgot his name because he wasn't important enough to be stored in my aging brain cells) decided to revert back to PPMSBM. (Totally irrelevant but this is how the word "revert" should be used - returning something into an original state. NOT TO BE USED IN EMAILS TO ASK THE READER TO REPLY. TAKE NOTE.) Reason? Results dropped because the majority did not understand English. Real reason? Afraid Malaysians lupa daratan. See? An example of politicizing education in the name of protecting their hollow shells.

I was one of the victims of this. Back in 2008, I obtained my 2007 SPM result. 9A1s and 2A2s. According to my reliable source, co-curriculum accounts only 10% of decision-making when it comes to giving away scholarships. By right, the main decision-making factor would be meritocracy. Extras such as co-curriculum, parents' income (who is poorer), and even race should be secondary in case there are too many straight A students. I think the order of priority for decision-making should go like this:

Straight A1s -> straight As -> A1 for required subject -> parents' income -> co-curriculum -> race priority

The government, however, decided to put race as the top priority.

Let's take a look at my case here.

Scholarship applied: Engineering overseas (because I was pretty good at Chemistry so I naively thought Chemical Engineering was my thing)
Straight A1 = X
Straight As = /
A1 for required subjects = / (A1 for English, Maths, English for Science and Technology (pretty useless but normally an extra A1 subject for me as it was pretty easy to score back then but wait, it is not that useless after all because of the existence of PPMSI hahahaha forgive my ignorance), Add Maths, Science, Physics, Chemistry)
Parents' income = / (I put RM1500 at tax-filing section)
Co-curriculum = Considered / (I got borderline A because I was a prefect, an active member in RC, a secretary for Interact and represented my school for random essay-writing competitions so bolehlah)
Race = X (Chinese mah)

As a result, I studied Form 6 and scored a borderline 3 for my CGPA in STPM (although in most universities, the number of As matter WHYYY). I was bitter because of the stupid politics set up by the government. Silly me. I should have gotten over my bitterness and studied harder back then.

Look at people like Lam Shu Jie. Was she bitter? No, she wasn't. She seek for opportunities elsewhere and she is currently going somewhere. She did not let government's fucked-up politics screwed her up. Yes, it is a sad thing that many talent migrated elsewhere. Yes, it is sad to see brain drain happening in Malaysia.

Which is why, people in Malaysia who is currently bitter in Malaysia, do not give in to the government's political strategy to break Malaysians. Our government may be fucked up, but Malaysia is not. You can expand your horizons elsewhere and be somebody, but do not let the government affect you. Remember to vote even if you are shaping your fame in another country. Look at Datuk LCW. His talent unites us Malaysians even if it is only during the finals. Look at Dato Michelle Yeoh. She is now an international actress. Look at Jimmy Choo. He did not begin his designing career in Malaysia. But he still makes Malaysia proud. Be that someone who goes out of Malaysia, be successful and then do something to improve Malaysia. Be that someone who stays in Malaysia, make peace with other Malaysians and try to improve Malaysia from within.

Do not let the government win by feeling bitter towards those who did not obtain any scholarship after getting straight As for SPM. The government wants to divide us so that we are not united enough to overthrow them. Do not fall for that. Stay united, believe in change and topple the government so that we can create an ideal education. We can change the entire Ministry of Education by letting educators take over those corrupted ministers' places.

But for now, please do not feel bitter because the government has long politicizing our education. Go against that. If government do not want young Malay students to be proficient in English, we help those young Malay students to improve their English. Even urban students suffer to be honest, despite them being smacked right in the middle of the city. Government teachers who continue striving out there, good job. Give those urban poor free tuition when we are free, if we can.

By the way, I have not mentioned the result of fucked up education. You see, many young Malaysians today cannot even speak proper English. They cannot differentiate "revert" and "reply" in emails. Take a look at King CoCo. She is disguising her broken English in her accent. Actually, there are many Malaysians I know who do that (not as bad as CoCo though). Educated Malaysians I mean.

I shall stop ranting. I have not been writing for a long time. I miss writing.

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