From: eoahmad@ntuix.ntu.ac.sg (Othman Ahmad)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asean
Subject: Re: Malaysia's racial policies
Date: 9 Nov 92 01:03:51 GMT
Organization: Nanyang Technological University - Singapore
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

TAN GIM WEE (eng20009@nusunix1.nus.sg) wrote:
: : Arts. This does not mean that any malay off the street can qualify for
: : the spaces. Neither do these policies put a restriction on Chinese wanting
: : to study fields like engineering if they don't make the quota in local
: : U's. There are always other ways besides local universities. Nothing is
: : forbidden. I am not interested in discussing this further.
: : 
: Yes, proportional representation is indeed very desirable in a
: multi-racial society like Malaysia. But sir, think about a poor Chinese
: who wants to get into the local universities to do engineering but can't
: because of the quota. Where, sir, do you expect him to find the needed
: financial resources to fund an overseas education? Yes, the policies

I thought the same thing happen prior to NTU. In fact I have the feeling that
the entrance requirement has dropped as a result of the increase in the
number of places, but before that poor but nearly brilliant, not as brilliant
as the President's Scholars, those with (5As?) , cannot go to any university
because they have no financial support.
	I agree strongly that Singapore approach is the better one, i.e. by
providing more local places, and overseas scholarships reserved for the very
best, and only to the best Universities, but this is only a recent phenomena.
: does not restrict people who are non-bumis from pursuing their goals and
: dreams, but makes it harder, much harder. Anyway, one can get an
: accounting degree by correspondence, but so far, I have not heard of any
: such courses for engineering. Where to do the experiments?
I thought in Singapore there is the City and Guilds?
: An enlightened government should as far as possible try to allow ALL of
: its citizens to pursue their own goals, while at the same time try to
: maintain national unity and harmony. Another thing is that any
: government should know that dealing with people will always entail
: having to deal with irrational and emotional responses. That is inherent
: in human nature. Whatever the benefits of any policies are on the macro
: level, as long as it hurts oneself at the micro level, it is always hard
: to rationalise them as being good. Perhaps your esteemed government
: should do more PR and marketing, get in touch with the people to explain
: to them the reasons for their policies. Maybe this will help reduce the
: amount of negative feelings amongst some of the people.

	You have struct a nerve cord somewhere but the reason is due to the
basic nature of the Malays. They do not like to talk much. Even here, you 
notice that they are very quiet.
	Even the original poster, mention that he does not want to discuss
further. Jaafar was apologetic with my "defences".
: : Yes, perhaps these policies sacrifice quality but national unity comes
: : with a price and it is all a matter of priorities. Yours is probably
: : not the same as the govt, perhaps?
: Yes, you are right again. However, it would be rather unfair to ask any
: single community within the country to sacrifice. After all, for
: national unity, all people should share both the gains and the
: sacrifices isn't it?

Has it occured to you that giving the chinese citizenship is a very major
sacrifice? And limiting the quota to only 30% is also another major 
sacrifice? What prevents them from achieving 50%?
--
Othman bin Ahmad, School of EEE,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 2263.
Internet Email: eoahmad@ntuix.ntu.ac.sg
Bitnet Email: eoahmad@ntuvax.bitnet
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asean