From: eoahmad@ntuix.ntu.ac.sg (Othman Ahmad)
Subject: Re: scholarship: a joke ? ( was: UM )
Organization: Nanyang Technological University - Singapore
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 05:23:20 GMT

mlt@gdwb.oz.au (Mee Teng) writes:
: eoahmad@ntuix.ntu.ac.sg (Othman Ahmad) writes:
: 
: >You seem to think that only JPA offers scholarships. It is therefore obvious
: En. othman, do you know how many scholarships were thrown to the
: bumi's by the government each year ? At the expense of rich Chinese ?
: In case you are ignorant, close to 1 billion ringgit ! And yes ! it's
: down the drain !! So most of the scholarships are from the gov't !!
: Why bother bring talk about scholarships from elsewhere ?? The non-
: bumi pay tax too you know. As for the bumi students sent overseas

Are you aware that oil royalty is about 4 billion per year?
JPA started sending students in large numbers only in 1977 when the oil
revenue starts flowing in.
	From Sabah there was a quota of 10, and only 8 actually finally took it,
when there are 2 others who are qualified.
	From Sarawak, 25. At a time when oil revenue comes from Sabah and
Sarawak, 800 students from Malaya were sent. I'm not sure from where, could 
be from other bodies as well, such as Mara etc.

: I have just receieved mail saying that I have been too generous
: to say they are 'good' students. Craps like the half in UM is
: more correct !!
	With brains like yours, I support the government in taking away whatever
financial assistance you may have. Since it is well known that the best 
students were sent overseas, are you implying that this is not true?
	Are you saying that some of the better Malays were not sent?
	How come the Malays do not complain? I don't because most of the
qualified malays actually got it. The ones who do not are less qualified.

: 
: >Right, you will never get any scholarship now, even if you are a bumi with
: >very good results such as 4A because they only give loans.
: If this is of any truth then the gov't must have been sucked dry by
: the bumi scholars, or is it that the Chinese finally have also been 
: sucked dry ?

	You ignorant fool. You are assuming again that "only" Chinese contribute
to Malaysian government revenue. Even if the chinese do contribute, where do
they get the business from, from the other population or on Malaysian resources.
: How many scholarships are there ? And how many well qualified (few As)
: non-bumis are there ? Why should all the non-bumis be made to fight
: for the relatively small number of scholarships ? Why should JBA
: go to the residential schools to throw away the scholarships ? Are all
: the students in the resid. schoools poor ? And all the non-bumis rich ?
: There will occasions where entire Form 5 classes were sent overseas !!

You are questioning the Malaysian constitution. The giving of scholarships
to Malays were the most effective way of upgrading their standard of living
to match those of the chinese, without stopping the progress of the other
races. Can you recommend other ways?
	I'm sure you just recommend that the Malays rot in hell, because they
are lazy, stupid, and useless.
	It is the citizens' right to be lazy provided it is their property. 
Are you like the Japanese who invade SEA because they think they deserve the
resources better than the natives(chinese included), who are lazy and stupid,
compared to themselves.
	Don't give me the crap that being born gives you automatic citizenship,
and once given it cannot be taken out.
Few nation on earth follow that principle any more, and that includes 
Singapore.

	TAke out the special privileges of the Malays, and take out the
automatic citizenships of the chinese? Why don't you ask for a referendum
among the Malays as to which one they prefer?
	I bet 90% of them will prefer the stripping of the citizenship, over
the almost useless contestable "special rights".
: 
: >who do not have the means. Since most chinese have the means, they are able
: >to support themselves overseas. Facts show better than arguments.
: >chinese who can afford to have a mercedes benzes in UK still consider themselves
: >as poor, and I'm discounting others who can afford to buy other cars,
: What facts are you talking about ? Most Malaysians say the same things.

Now you say that only chinese are Malaysians.

: 
: >hawkers need not be the poorest, especially chinese hawkers. In fact even Malay
: >hawkers are known to be among the richest of Malays not the government 
: >servents.
: Of course hawkers need not be poor ! But there are many poor hawkers .
: Even then, what percentage of Chinese are hawkers ??
Did I say that all chinese are hawkers? I'm just quoting some of the views
of overseas people in thinking that the chinese are poor in Malaysia.
	The best indicator is the per capita income of a group of people.

As to the removal of any racial bias from the government, why don't you say
to same thing to the commercial sector?
	With advertisements such as "mandarin and chinese speaking people need
apply" so rampant in Malaysia and Singapore, why don't you talk about that.
	At least the government is bound by regulations, how about the private
sector. Even with the attempt to enforce the 30% bumi constituent, the bumis
were actually given jobs as janitors and other less skilled jobs.

	As to complaints about lack of productivity of malay vs chinese,
the factory operations in Penang is testimony to that. If the chinese forement
in private industry do not know how to manange malay workers, don't blame the
workers.

I'm sad that there are so many people like you in Malaysia who attacks the
wrong diseases. DAP and MCA can be a more effective engine of economic growth
if they are more intelligent in their attacks instead of being more racially
biased.

The questions that I put is whether it is wise to send any qualified student
overseas based on their means only? Shouldn't we reserve it to the better
students and shouldn't it be to the very best universities, instead of
just "any university"?

There are now calls by local politicians in increasing the number and quality
of local universities by employing overseas lecturers, which is very much 
cheaper and more effective in the long run.
	The economic policy of the government must be changed drastically.
The government should not listen to chinese towkeys, instead follow the 
leads of other countries. Please note that LKY never listen to the towkeys or
other rich people, he refused invitations to attend their functions.
	The dramatic change that I envisage is to stop exploiting government
servants. Give them what are due in comparison with the best in the world?
If you don't do that, how can you get the best workers from the world over?
	The greatest opposition come from the chinese community which are
led by towkays, and most of them derive income from petty businesses.
	With the growing number of chinese and malay professionals, hopefully
things will change. Let me explain why by not exploiting the government 
servants, the whole nation will benefit. This is practised in Singapore.
Anwar attempted it to a small extent about 6 months ago(?) when he raised the
salaries of government servants by 20%.
	The starting pay for engineers had been at 1100 ever since Mahathir
took power. Anwar increased it to 1300. The private sector salary was 1400
and suddenly increase to 2000 in the same time interval. Is it a conincidence?
No, the same thing happen in Singapore. The private sector always match with
government sector, because government sector is the biggest employer in both
countries.
	By increasing the salary scale of government servants, most of the
usenet posters will benefit. What is the catch? Slow the physical developments,
or else inflation will soar, but this is what was done in Singapore.
	In fact the politician complain that the people(my guess is government
servants) prefer "bonus" over physical development. 
	Dr Mahathir condemn this approach many times in his speeches which makes
me wonder which direction Malaysian policy will go. however recently he keeps
on changing his actions, such as the sudden increase in government salary
and the strengthening of the ringgit, which are both opposed by the towkeys
and "parrot economists". The sudden increase in Malaysian economic performance
was attributed to lessening of recession. Stupid, the world over is experiencing
recession, only Malaysia and Thailand(fortune magazine).

I'm tired, next time probably.

--
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