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Location: Penang, Malaysia

February 05, 2008

JPA scholarship

One thing that keeps pissing me off about blogging is that, when you have the time to sit down and blog, you ideas run away. I was just being reminded of this and I decided to blog it immediately. Just last month, an idiot sent a letter to brother Lim and got posted on blog.limkitsiang.com at http://blog.limkitsiang.com/2008/01/25/a-frustrated-goverment-scholar-blogger/. Really a soar-high (in Cantonese).

Someone just talked to me about JPA scholarship recently. My friend was complaining to me about the fact that only 10% on non-Bumiputera are selected for this. OK, what the hell is this fucking JPA scholarship? For those not familiar with Malaysia, the Public Service Department or Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam offers scholarships to those who scored "good grades" in their SPM examination. This is a scholarship where the government will send students to overseas for tertiary studies. Every eligible Malaysians will try their "luck" to apply. The chance of Langitputera is always slim.

Sending students to study overseas started as an initiatives to expose Malays to the world. The belief is that Chinese Malaysians are very rich and they can send their kids to overseas easily. These Malays should come back and serve the country once they have graduated. Local universities are believed to be not able to provide this kind of opportunity. In the past, if I recalled correctly, they offered mainly English speaking countries like United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, etc. I remember that Germany and Japan are there. Today, the list is expanded multiple times that includes countries such as Korea, Russia, and even Finland.

To me, this JPA scholarship is a waste of money and counterproductive. It defeats the original purpose or building a group of elites for the country. It really fucks up these days.

Sending students to overseas are not something new. During the Qing dynasty, in the year 11 of the Tongzhi period, the Chinese Imperial court sent students to study various fields in the United States. How many of them decided not to return to China? How many of them came back and were NOT allowed to contribute to the country? What is the return of investment?

The JPA selection criteria is based on kulification, not qualification. Malays always have lower requirements. So, these people are not cream of the crops. Well, this is actually not my point because even if we fix this selection criteria, sending students to overseas should be stopped be the government totally.

First of all, JPA screwed up big time. They have never set any pressure for them to excel. So, most, if not all of the Malays students are at the bottom of the list of academic achievement. I am talking based on normal distribution. Please don’t quote me exceptional cases. Students can continue to drag on their studies to even up to 7 years to get just a basic bachelor degree. Damn it! Such idiots can then apply to continue their master degree. What a joke?

Second, we have a group of interesting Malay ladies who will just come back to Malaysia and get married once they completed their studies. They are not working anymore after that. What a waste? You might ask me, what about their contract?

JPA has too much money. Transparency and accountability is not required in government departments. When these students returned, they were told there is no job in the government sector. They were just released off their contract. Wow! In reality, the government is always short of people. Those currently in the government has only completed Form Five, and of course, the are damn "afraid" of people with a degree. Same problem happened during the Qing dynasty.

Only those with some connections will be absorbed into the government. For example, the son of a Datuk or Tan Sri. Someone influential in the government can actually afford to send their sons and daughters overseas. They are depriving others who need such funds for education.

Another point to talk about is objective. By spending so much money to send people to overseas, what is JPA expectation on these people? From my point of view, I don’t see that there is a real objective. So, after returning to Malaysia, these people who studied in a "rare language" country such as Japan and Korea end up in call center. Some becomes translators. They acquire the proficiency in a foreign language but how does that benefit the country in long run? Some are doing some business on their own too.

Our local universities are at a very pathetic state. They keep denying that they are deteriorating. Keeping too many idiots and not practicing real meritocracy make it worse than before. Well, they said our universities are of first class. Hahaha… what a joke? They keep contradicting themselves. If our universities are so good, abolish this stupid JPA scholarship and get everyone to study locally.

Why do I care? Of course I care! I pay taxes and these bloody fuckers are wasting my money!!!

6 Comments:

Blogger Que Sara Sara. said...

aiya, Encik Taxpayer, the endeavour of every projects marks the suck-up of money. If you get what I mean. Some can't even be bothered. That's why, don't you know? that documents were shred. As simple as that.

3:23 AM  
Blogger William said...

Totally agree with you!

11:54 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Are you angry at JPA scholarships being handed out or are you actually really angry at the lack of meritocracy? Please don't call all JPA scholars bloody fuckers because I assure you, some of us did work our asses off by merit to earn the scholarship and continue to make our country proud as students overseas.

5:45 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

" So, after returning to Malaysia, these people who studied in a "rare language" country such as Japan and Korea end up in call center "

If Malaysia is not rich with all these uniquely skilled human resource (e.g. Japanese-English / Korean-English conversant technical professinals etc etc) , no multinational company would even consider investing their support centre here in the first place. Now almost all key player in business worldwide has placed their Asia Pacific hub in Malaysia.
Job demands in this field soars, we can see IT professionals making a lot more compared to other industries. I think Malaysia has benefited from these oversea programs in term of increasing confidence level of foreign investors.

10:13 PM  
Blogger idaku said...

Hello, kalau you tak suka tak payah bayar tax lah, sooo nobody gonna use your money. Keep it to your self. Mulut you sangat jahat dan busuk.
Kalau you rasa ini negara unfair to you cari kerja lain negaralah. Mungkin kalau you kerja lain negara you dikecualikan dari bayar tax. lagi senangkan. Kalau you tak senang dengan kita, kita pun tak senang dengan you. Jaga sikit mulut you.

2:39 PM  
Blogger nutz_hana said...

i see ur point, but yet i dont know whether to blam jpa for that..
for me i think jpa should produce a productive graduate that can contribute to the country and create a professional circle, but yet i do encounter with certain jpa scholar that after finishing their studies, they didnt even serve the gov but they went to other country to find job.. what a show off... for me not all are not greatful, they just way too proud to be a scholar... another thing you got it right on point where why those loaded rich people kids need a scholar for, where there are poor kids need it... it does get my nerve sometimes...
FYI, im x that great as im just a graduate from a local uni. yet it always been my dream to further study overseas..soo hardly to say no to scholarship...
anyway its a good point u have there...

4:46 PM  

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