Education is a basic human right, yet Malaysia restricts its own citizens from tertiary education based on skin colour.
Since Anwar Ibrahim became the PMX (10th Prime Minister) on Nov 24, 2022, he has done three incredible things.
First, he has splashed tens of billions of Ringgit to appease fellow ethnic Malays, 80% of whom did not vote for him.
Second, his government has donated RM100 million to the Palestinians, and openly promotes Hamas terrorists as his best friends.
Third, PM Anwar has consistently kept quiet whenever ethnic Chinese, 95% of whom had voted for him, were being bullied by the enemy-turned-ally United Malays National Organization (UMNO).
Now, nearly 20 months into power, the increasingly unpopular premier started to take note of unhappy Chinese voters, especially when his party – PKR (People’s Justice Party) – is set to face the Sungai Bakap polls on July 6.
Hence, it appears to be a design rather than a coincidence when Anwar announced that all Form 5 students – regardless of race and religion – who score 10 A’s in the SPM (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia) examination will be guaranteed a place at the government matriculation centre. The matriculation, popularly known as “matrics” or “matrix”, is a pre-university programme aimed at preparing students for entry into public universities.
Unlike the much harder STPM (Form 6 examination equivalent to A-Level, but is more difficult than A-Level even though both are pre-university courses), the matrics programme, which provides students with the option to choose subjects in Science, Accounting or Technical, is the easiest way to pursue first-degree tertiary education at government universities.
The Malaysian Matriculation Programme claims its pre-university course can be used to gain entrance into overseas universities. In truth, it is only recognized by a handful of foreign universities. In general, the matrics are “not recognized” by universities overseas. Worse, although taking matriculation assures you a place at a public university, it does not guarantee you a course of your choice.
From the beginning, the local matriculation was designed as a shortcut for Bumiputera or Malay students graduating from SPM (O-Level equivalent) to prepare them for their degree in local universities, avoiding the STPM (Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia, which is known as the killer pre-university programme attended by mostly non-Malays who have no other choice due to discrimination policies).
As such, the “apartheid” matrics programme is highly discriminating and racist – 90% of places are allocated for Bumiputera students whilst 10% for non-Bumiputeras. The 10% quota for non-Bumiputeras is further divided into 5.5% for Chinese students, 3.5% for Indian students, and 1% for others. This explains why every year, non-Bumiputeras, especially the Indian community complain about insufficient places.
Adding salt to injury, the minimum requirement for the matriculation programme’s science stream is laughable – just need to score a “D” in Additional Mathematics and a “C” each in Bahasa Melayu, English, Mathematics, Chemistry and another “C” in either Physics or Biology in your SPM. But this is only for Malays or Bumiputeras. For the Chinese, even straight A’s might not get them a place or course of choice.
So, how did the genius premier invent the magical formula of allowing every single SPM top scorer to enter matrics, but still maintain the 90% quota for Malays or Bumiputeras? After all, for over 60 years, not a single prime minister has dared to do what he did for fear of losing the Malay votes, who have been indoctrinated with “Ketuanan Melayu”, the ideology of Malay supremacy espoused by UMNO.
It’s actually very easy. Before Anwar even dared open his mouth, a detailed analysis was done based on the past year’s SPM data. And it’s not rocket science that not many non-Malay students scored 10 A’s simply because most SPM students took only a maximum of nine subjects. It was like offering a free BMW to any Proton owner who can achieve 0-100 km/h in under 5 seconds.
Therefore, non-Malay SPM top students with 10 A’s were already accepted to matriculation colleges, assuming they were interested in a programme which isn’t worldwide recognized to begin with. Even before 2019, seats for matrics have been increased from 25,000 to 40,000. Based on the quota system, about 2,200 (5.5%) are for Chinese students whilst Indian get 1,400 places (3.5%).
Last year’s SPM results saw a total of 11,713 candidates scoring straight A’s. But scoring straight A’s does not necessarily mean getting 10 A’s. Clearly, the condition of 10 A’s is already a roadblock to disqualifying many Chinese and Indian students, who were more interested in fields like medicine or securing JPA (Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam or public services department) scholarships to study overseas.
Besides, non-Bumiputera students who scored 10 A’s (especially full A+) most likely will get a scholarship at private colleges or more prestigious universities – even in Singapore or the United Kingdom. These outstanding students are not really interested in the local matriculation programme, let alone competing with “special privilege students” of a certain race and skin colour who secured places despite scoring only “C’s” in SPM.
It’s worth noting that most Malay students in the matriculation programme aren’t the “crème de la crème”. The cleverest Malay or Bumiputera students would have been “forced” to go to overseas universities already under JPA scholarships. Arguably, non-Malay top students could see their standards being dragged down by joining matrics, not to mention they may not get the course of choice.
In the same breath, there is always the debate about whether non-Bumiputera students with excellent SPM results should proceed to STPM or A-Level instead of taking the easier route of matrics. Unlike in the 1980s or 1990s, when tertiary education was limited to a handful of public universities with a quota system, there are now dozens of private universities as well as foreign university branch campuses.
Unless facing financial constraints, not liking the risk of STPM, or not thinking about becoming a doctor (chances are slim), non-Malay students normally won’t consider matrics. Opting for A-Levels or STPM – even UEC – provides wider recognition and choices. Don’t even fantasize about applying to Harvard, Yale, Cambridge, Oxford or MIT with the Malaysia Matriculation Programme, lest you want to be laughed at.
Non-Malay students who are in the programme today may not possess 10 A’s, but you can bet they have 8 A’s or 9 A’s, close enough to 10 A’s to qualify for a place, or else the racist policy would have happily rejected all of them. As such, the government’s offer for 10 A’s students has raised another question – what about those with 9 A’s who took 9 subjects?
Let’s assume more SPM students, inspired by the automatic places in matriculation, overload themselves with 10 subjects and score 10 A’s. Based on 2023 SPM results, where 11,713 candidates scored straight A’s, it’s estimated that around 30% of these high achievers could be Chinese students. This means approximately 3,514 non-Malay students must be offered a place.
Again, let’s also assume all of them were interested in the matriculation programme. Does that mean the education ministry has to sacrifice Malay’s quota to accommodate the 3,514 Chinese students alone, breaching the quota of 2,200 (5.5%) slots for the Chinese minority? To solve this, the government just needs to increase more seats for the Malays to maintain the 90:10 quota system.
Essentially, for every new non-Malay student with 10 A’s who exceed the 10% quota intake, an additional 9 slots to cater for Malay students would be created. It’s a win-win solution and finding 9 Malay low scorers isn’t that difficult. The odds of Chinese and Indian SPM students who scored 10 A’s and want to do matriculation are extremely low. But what if there’s a sudden flood of non-Malay students?
That’s even easier to solve. The education ministry has a magic wand, and it’s called “fail the non-Malay students” on purpose, especially on Bahasa Melayu paper. In fact, it has been done for decades. Those born in the 1970s still remember how Anwar, as Education Minister (1986-1991), had destroyed the future of many SPM students when the Bahasa Melayu paper was made a compulsory subject.
Yes, there were many true stories about non-Malay students deliberately denied education to Form 6 because they mysteriously failed to get a credit for the Malay language paper, even though they had done incredibly well in the school exams. Astonishingly, some parents who paid to get their children’s exam papers rechecked were left speechless when the same Bahasa Melayu paper suddenly got a credit.
So, when Anwar Ibrahim said the government’s decision to admit all top SPM scorers, regardless of race, into matriculation programmes is to reduce tensions within the education system, he should be ashamed to claim such credit when he was part of the racist and corrupted system if not the man directly responsible for the tensions in the first place.
He talked about meritocracy, justice and fairness. There’s no meritocracy when non-Malay students with 7 A’s, 8 A’s or 9 A’s cannot get a place in matriculation, but Malay students with lots of B’s or C’s can. There’s no justice when the rotten system still maintains a 90:10 quota system despite the demographics showing 60% Bumiputera (50.1% Malay), 22% Chinese and 7% Indian.
And it definitely isn’t fair that the Chinese students were only allocated 5.5% places in matriculation when the minority ethnic group pays 90% of taxes. Education is a basic human right, yet Malaysia is the only country on the planet that restricts its own citizens from tertiary education based on skin colour. – Finance Twitter