Meritocracy the way to go, say politicians

The call to abolish meritocracy in the education system for the sake of Malays is a step backward which should not be entertained, say Malaysian politicians "Meritocracy should definitely stay. It is good," said Deputy Education Minister Datuk Mary Yap Kain Ching.

She did not want to comment further but opposition politicians took the issue a step further claiming that the call was politically motivated to create racial disharmony.

Malay educationists had backed a call to abolish meritocracy at a forum over the weekend claiming that it had created "Chinese supremacy".

Malay Consultative Council president Ibrahim Abu Shah, who is also the former Universiti Teknologi Mara deputy chancellor, had  proposed that the Education Ministry restructure the education system to return "justice" to Malay students.

Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim also rejected the idea of doing away with meritocracy, adding that as an educationist, Ibrahim should not have said that.

"For a former deputy chancellor to say that speaks volumes about our education system."

"If you say we should implement affirmative action to uplift the poor in their academic capabilities, then it is great proposal," Anwar said.

PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli said that while he acknowledged that there are disparities in terms of education between the Malays and other races, removing meritocracy from the system was not the solution.

"This is not the root cause of the problem. It is not going to change the overall achievement and performance of our schoolchildren, especially the Malays."

"The real problem is the inability and the subsequent failure of our education system to bring out the best in the Malay students," Rafizi said.

He added that it was "very backward" to continue to tell the Malay children that they are not good enough.

"What kind of message are we sending to the Malay children if we tell them they cannot compete with other races except among themselves."

"We send Malay students overseas to compete with the rest of the world, but here, we have a problem."

Rafizi said the issue here was not about scholarship quota but the quality of the education system.

He complained that yet again, the race issue had become a talking point.

"How many times must we keep saying that Malay students are not smart and must be molly-coddled? We have to accept that Malay students have the potential as any other student given the right conditions, conditioning, training and facilities," he added.

Rafizi also said that Chinese and Indians who excel in studies went to great extents to achieve their good results and therefore should get the scholarships based on the criteria.

Batu MP Tian Chua's take on this issue was that it was politically motivated to create racial discourse in the country.

"We are all for affirmative action, and I agree not everything can be on merit, for instance, we should help poor students. However, if there is to be no merit in education, then how will Mara gauge and motivate students who do well."

"Will they today offer rewards and scholarships to students from Kelantan and tomorrow students from Terengganu, or will they toss a coin?" he questioned.