Malaysia continues policy of university admission based on merit

Producer: Yvonne Gomez
First broadcast: 28 May 04, Radio Singapore International

Malaysia is staying the course with the merit-based university admission system it implemented in 2002. How do Malaysians feel about this? Yvonne Gomez finds out in this report.

Before 2002, many non-Malays failed to be admitted into popular and prestigious university courses like medicine and law because the bumiputera or Malays were given special concessions, even if they didn t meet the courses high standards.

Continuing with this policy for the third time with this year s intake, Malaysia s Higher Education Minister Dr Shafie Salleh, said this week, that anyone who wished to earn a place at university had to work for it. He also said that Malay students must prepare themselves for the real world , which runs on meritocracy .

For an understanding of the merit system, I spoke to Professor Khoo Kay Kim, who has written on the subject in the Malaysian media.

KKK: It's not a merit system, as it is normally understood. Students are still admitted on two separate qualifications. One is known as the matriculation system, that's open to Malay students, and they do pre-university work for one year. The other one is the normal Higher School Certificate, which is two years. So it's a bit difficult to equate the one year system with the two-year system.

You've said before that a system based on meritocracy will not solve the issue of the declining quality of students. Would you care to elaborate on that?

KKK: Yes, admission is one thing. It can be quite clinical. But university as education depends very much on how it is conducted. And our education system, just like the education systems in most Asian countries, and East Asia is most guilty of this, encourages rote learning. So you can admit any kind of student you like, but if they go through three or four years of rote learning and nothing else, then they will not mature, they will not become wiser, and they certainly will never become creative. So admission to me, is just one aspect of the problem.

There've been reports that say that this meritocracy system could make the number of Malay students dwindle drastically. How do you think the Malaysian Malays are going to react to something like this?

KKK: Well, as far as I know, the Malays are not yet willing to see the matriculation system done away with. They're not ready for that. Therefore, if it's going to be open competition based entirely on the Higher School Certificate, I'm not certain that the Malay students are ready for that. There should not be so much talk about meritocracy. Meritocracy is understood by most people as open competition, and we're not ready for open competition.

For another perspective, I also spoke to Professor Shamsul Amri Baharuddin from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. He gave me his opinion of a merit-based system.

SAB: The old system is based on historical experiences that we've had in Malaysia. The affirmative action system, based on quotas, is present in the US, Australia and some other countries, so it's not really a great or new thing that Malaysia is doing. Despite this, Malaysia has still opted for meritocracy. Meritocracy assumes that everyone has an equal start, but that's not the reality in this country. Yet, Malaysia has been brave enough to try the meritocracy system. I think credit has to be given to the government, which is clearly, in its policies, pro-Malay in many ways, to implement a system that could actually undermine their political support. But quite obviously, after its implementation for two years, or rather, two times, the effect hasn't been negative, because the last election showed that despite this policy, the people still supported the government.

What's your response to the view that Malays in Malaysia are not actually ready for such a system that is based on open competition?

SAB: Open competition is not really open competition, just like an open market is not really an open market - it's full of protection. Such a situation doesn't exist. So what we have to do is, in its present structural situation where there is no real open competition, like a real, open democracy, there are rules and regulations that need to be put in place to safeguard other things. In a 100m race, you don't expect someone in a wheelchair to compete against someone who is not in a wheelchair. So I think this is the reality that we have to cope with in Malaysia.