The hunt for jobs and the UEC

The debate on Malaysia officially recognising the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) has gone on for some time — probably for the past four years or more.

Those proposing that the nation recognise this certificate are mostly from the Malaysian ethnic Chinese community and non-Malay-majority political parties, particularly MCA and DAP.

Those against are mostly the Malaysian ethnic Malays.

The most recent reason given by the prime minister is that UEC will only be recognised “when all sensitivities are considered”. This phrase seems rather cryptic, does it not?

Proponents of UEC say that it is widely accepted in foreign universities, on the same level as the Malaysian government’s STPM.

At the same time, it is also considered on a par with acceptance of British A-Levels or American SATs worldwide, which are recognised by the Malaysian education system for university degrees, both public and private.

Thus, what is the problem in approving yet another internationally-recognised certificate when it comes to university admittance? What is the major concern?

In a utopian society, without barriers, it wouldn’t. But let us take the scenario that Malaysia is not utopian and rather racist. After all, we had a Chindian young man being rejected recently when it came to renting apartments in Penang for being of a “mixed race”, rather than being pure Chinese.

Taking that mentality into this scenario, the objection against the UEC is not against allowing it to be accepted for entrance into public universities or even to be given scholarships to go overseas.

Instead, it is the concern that this will impact the job market.

Let us be rather frank — there is a rather racist job market in Malaysia. Allowing the UEC will impact hiring for the Malay community possessing only SPM-level and STPM-level education.

And this is where the Malays against it see the highest impact — that employers will then overlook Malaysian certificate bearers and prioritise the UEC for hiring employees.

It is becoming an issue to get even an executive-level job these days. As such, there is a need for the government to consider whether there is equality in hiring, or whether merit is being made an excuse.

A similar scenario was seen when it came to the new Pakatan Harapan Cabinet, where 30% were supposed to be women. This failed to be achieved.

While some women (read: former minister Rafidah Aziz) believed that merit should be looked at instead of gender, I disagree. After all, there are enough women in politics with the same merit to become a minister, unlike the time when Rafidah was a minister.

Similarly, a scenario allowing the UEC to be accepted for employment along with the STPM will impact the private sector most of all because if there is a racial bias. It will put the Malay community majority from public schools at an even further disadvantage.

Is it a believable, relevant and even a serious concern? I think that is up to everyone to decide.

If the perception is that the job market is racially biased, and the mentality of people is still stuck in tribalism on all sides, then having it recognised and official through an exam certificate will seem to be a step backwards, not forward.

If the UEC is taken by Malays at large in high numbers, then perhaps we can remove this fear of it being a Chinese-biased issue.

Until then, it will be hard to convince anyone fighting for so-called Malay rights that this isn’t just another way to push the Malay community out of the running for a job using an exam cert.

The second utopian scenario is that nobody bothers and the job market puts the STPM, UEC and A-Levels at the same level, without bias.

The best candidate will go through a number of interviews to show that he or she is the best candidate for the job, and that employers are not racially-biased, gender-biased and treat all, including foreign workers, the same as locals.

I’ll just wonder which scenario Malaysians believe we are currently experiencing in this country.

Hafidz Baharom is an FMT reader.