'No dogs and Blacks allowed’ = ‘Only 10% non-bumis are allowed’

I was one of those who took the STPM route and got into a public university. During my orientation, a bumi senior asked me in a casual chat, "You dapat berapa principle ah?" I stammered in disbelief, "Errr... lima lah." We were required to take five subjects and the obvious answer would be to pass all of it.

I was appalled at the question because it implied that he did not pass all his subjects to get a place in the university. A more reasonable question should have been "How many A's did you get?" Or, a less kiasu question could sound like, "How did you score?"

Not much has changed I gathered, from all the top scorers crying foul over their failure to get scholarships (or even placements in courses of choice).

Disappointed Student wrote to Malaysiakini.com on April 25, 2008 venting her frustration of failing to clinch a scholarship despite getting 11A1s for her SPM. She said, in a response to other similar rants:

To ‘Schoolteacher, I would like to share with my case which is very similar to your case. I am a SPM leaver with an SPM result of 11A1s and I have a mother, whose is also a teacher in a government primary school. I am also the eldest daughter and I have two more younger brothers. With my family middle-class income, it's impossible for me to further my studies at a private college/university or overseas unless with a scholarship. I am pretty confident with my achievements as I hold extra-curricular posts eg, ,vice president, secretary, school prefect and I even went for the National Service programme.

I understand your daughter's feeling pretty well because I also was rejected for matriculation also for most of the scholarships that I've applied for (Petronas,Yayasan TNB,Yayasan Telekom,Yayasan Khazanah). Until now, I've only been called for an JPA interview.

Honestly, I don't really feel surprised I got rejected for those GLC scholarships and matriculation. As we know, matriculation is only open 10% for us, the non-bumis. Just imagine, out of 100 students, there are only 10 seats for us, the non-bumis. Frankly, I would feel surprise if I got an offer for matriculation.

In my school, there are about 20+ straight As scorers and they also did not get any offer for matriculation or other scholarships. We have only gone for the JPA interview so far. Even for the Petronas interview (they called it Petronas Educamp), out of the 20+ top scorers, only two managed to get selected. (One of them scored 11 A1s and one A2, another scored 11As and one B3, both non-bumis)

However, some of my Malay got an offer to do matriculation even with an SPM result of only 5As. I felt so hurt. I am so sad because I seem to be discriminated against. Nobody appreciates my talent, nobody appreciates my ability. As if our country has more than enough talented scholars.

So, to our country’s leaders, don't blame those talented scholars who do not want to come back to serve Malaysia. Don't forget who ‘threw’ them away before treating them as if they were rubbish. Frankly, sometimes I do question myself, why bother to torture myself? Why bother to wake up at 4am, sometimes even 3am to study? Why bother to score a straight A1s?

My mother once told me she is so disappointed with the Malaysian education system. Although I strived hard to score well in the SPM, but in the end, I ended up with no scholarship offer. Well, I am left the one and only hope- JPA. But my mother advised me not to put to much hope on this government scholarship.

Come on, after 51 years of independence, racism still exists in our country. We, the non-bumis, are like the blacks in US. In the past, US white people detested and discriminated against the blacks. They even put notices like,’No dogs and Blacks allowed’ in public places. Now, our government is putting up notices like ‘Only 10% non-bumis are allowed’ for matriculation. (And who knows if the figure of ‘10%’ is true? They might take 7% of non-bumis only, who knows?)

Our government also puts up notices like ‘These courses are only reserved for the bumiputera’ for IPTA course with SPM qualifications. For your information, courses like,’Asasi Sains’, ‘Prepatory courses for medicine’ at local unisare only for bumiputeras. Non-bumis, wait until your next life!

Most of my friends and me will choose to challenge of the tough STPM if we really don't get any scholarship offer.And I believe, STPM is the last choice but is it is also the choice of most non- bumis after a series of disappointments. I observed a few batches of my own Form 6 seniors and there were almost zero bumis in the Form 6 Science Stream. Of course, since they got into matriculation with 5As,or even with 2As from SPM, why bother to take the STPM?