Does the confusion exist?

By Lim Sue Goan

The war of words between Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz and MCA Youth chief Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong over the Public Service Department (PSD) scholarship distribution has confused the people.

Wee said that it is the greatest confusion in history while Nazri said that the PSD officers have been awarding the scholarships based on a set of strict guidelines and there is no confusion at all. He also said that the unfair scholarship distribution allegation is more likely a misunderstanding.

Nazri said that among the appeals made by 59 unsuccessful candidates through the MCA Youth, the best result was ranked 401 and thus, they were not awarded the PSD overseas degree scholarships. However, the MCA said that the 59 students have scored straight A+ and therefore, they should study in overseas instead of local universities.

Nazri explained that the minimum qualification for the scholarships is 9As and one is not necessarily be awarded a scholarship even if he or she has scored 13As. What kind of standard is this actually? How could it be called a performance-based system if students with the best results are not able to get the overseas degree scholarships?

The PSD rankings are also very strange as students who have scored straight A+ are ranked outside the top 400 while those with poorer results could be ranked better.

From their remarks, we can see a cognitive conflict between Wee and Nazri. They have started arguing even before eliminating the cognitive differences. As a result, just like speaking in two different languages, they do not understand each other at all.

It seems like the Cabinet should issue a clear instruction to clarify the doubts and eliminate cognitive differences while preventing officials from misinterpreting or self-interpreting the guidelines. There should only be one set of guidelines and it must always be strictly followed by all.

MCA ministers, Nazri and PSD officers could also sit down and make arguments over the above mentioned doubts. If the PSD thinks that there is nothing wrong with the guidelines, they could make them public, including disclosing the results of candidates who have been awarded the overseas degree scholarships, as well as the inside stories which have led to the misunderstanding. They could then let the people and scholars judge whether the scholarships have been unfairly distributed.

Facts are facts no matter how they argue. For example, a student scoring 10As has been offered a degree programme which does not exist and another 10A student suffering from Cerebral Palsy has also failed to get the scholarship under the vulnerable group category. How are they going to explain these?

Another solution could be turning the first category of scholarships into a fully independent overseas scholarship for national talents.

The 300 overseas scholarships should be awarded to students based on their results regardless of skin colour. Manual selection conducted by PSD officers have triggered disputes every year and thus, it should be replaced by a computer selection system which is honest and does not lie or play tricks.

If the PSD scholarship issue evolves into another racial issue, it is indeed a pity for the country. Talent cultivation and retention are related to national competitiveness and it should have nothing to do with race.

Isn't the current situation confusing enough as ministers servicing the same government are making their own interpretations?