Scholarship - Why Not Me?

Parliament turns into a stadium yesterday. The shouting match between two opposing teams in a football match in a stadium was replicated in our august parliament by both side of political divide. The catalyst of the shouting match - scholarships from the Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam (JPA). The JPA recently decided to allocate scholarships based on the quota of 55% Bumiputra and 45% other than Bumiputra.

I am not going to debate on the percentage allocated but to reflect on what happens during my schools days. Related to scholarships of course.

I never did receive any scholarship from the government, neither from my home state Perak nor the Federal government. I did submit applications but to no avails. I can't blame anybody if the selection process was based on results. I was never a straight "A"s student, so that excludes me from the list of those "cemerlang" students. But then if it is based on need basis, I should have been strongly considered for a scholarship.

When I was in primary school, I was always curious when without fail each month the same group of my classmates were called to the headmaster's office. Are they being punished for being naughty or had broken the school rules. It was neither. I only found out what they got for being summoned to the headmaster's office - not the rotan but to collect disbursement from the biasiswa persekutuan (federal scholarship). If I am not mistaken it was $30 per month. I did not know why they were selected....

That was a lot of money then. I only have 5 sen as my daily pocket money. I usually use the 5 sen to buy a piece of local cake during recess. When my water container dries up, my drink for the rest of the day will be from the school tap water near the washroom. There was no water dispenser/cooler in my school then.

I wondered why I was not summoned to the headmaster or gurubesar's room each month. I will be happy to do that if I am treated the same as the selected group of classmates. I never understand the reason even after I left primary school. I was just too naive or just plain ignorant on what is happening. No one ever tells me that I was different from the group of lucky classmates.

Secondary school was a new beginning of my life as a Malaysian. I starts to read and love history. The new syllabus for history textbooks for secondary schools was launched when I was in Form One. Most of the contents focuses on Malaysian history. I would prefered the old syllabus which covers even Genghis Khan and Atilla the Hun. I explored world history by reading those phased out history books used by my older siblings.

From the school textbook on the Malaysian history, I then realised the reason why I was not invited to the headmaster's room during my primary school. I am a Malaysian but of different stock. I do not fall into the "privilege" category. So no scholarship for me even though based on my family economic situation, I was deemed "qualified" to receive four gantang of rice each month from a local charitable board founded by a local Chinese tycoon.

Admission into a local university later on was a rite of passage for a Malaysian of my kind. Most of the first year students applied for the JPA scholarship. I was having high hopes that I will be offered one to cover my tuition and daily expenses. When the lists were out, I scan the list again and again few times. My name was not there. It was not even close. Malaysian of my stock were so few that we might misses it and I wondered why they asked us to applied for the JPA scholarship at the first place.

The howling and shouting in parliament about scholarships will continue until the day when all accepts the fact that Malaysia need to move on. The people need to be help because they need it, disregarding the stock origin or colors of the skin. Those who wants to lead must have the heart to help those who need it and deserved it. Other criterias should be secondary.