A tale of two countries: Malaysian GE and Singapore education

Blackout!

If you log onto Facebook one day after the release of the results for the General Election in Malaysia, you may notice many of your Malaysian friends have changed their profile pictures to a square of blankness. This move, inspired by the leaders of opposition party PakatanRakyat, who lost the general election, was a display of the anger over the alleged vote manipulation by the ruling party Barisan Nasional. This election was touted was a watershed election, with a change of government at stake. However, the “Ubah” championed by Anwar never came true and the status quo remained, together with a series of discriminatory policies that caused widespread dissatisfaction among the minority groups in Malaysia.

Educational discrimination

One of the major causes of dissatisfaction lies with the discriminatory policy in education, where the Malays are given preferential consideration in admissions into institutions such as public universities. A Chinese Malaysian student has to score much higher to stand a chance to get into the same university as a Malay Malaysian student; even such a chance is not guaranteed, subject to the size of quota. Such an education policy, brought into prominence by the general election, has much implication for the future of Malaysia and its neighbor, Singapore.

An unjustified rationale

The rationale for the preferential treatment of the Malays is the need for affirmative action. Because a substantial portion of the Malays in the past did not receive good education, they lost out to other races, particularly the Chinese, in areas such as business or other professional jobs that led one to higher income and social status. To correct the wrongs of the past and to put the Malays on an equal footing with their counterparts, the government lowered the admissions standard for the Malay students, hoping that the new generations of the Malays could improve their education level and social standing collectively.

Granted the good intention of the government to ease racial inequality, the affirmative action in Malaysia is not being done in an acceptable way. In the United States where affirmative action originated, the use of quota is explicitly forbidden by law. Race is a factor taken into admissions consideration, but it is never the factor that largely determines outcomes. In Malaysia, implicit or explicit quotas exist for university admissions, leading to a wide gap between the admission cut off scores for the Chinese and the Malays, a gap that cannot be explained by affirmative action in its proper practice alone. 'Reverse discrimination' must be used to explain the situation, where by trying to help one group, the government disadvantages another group as a result. Reverse discrimination, an often unintended outcome of affirmative action, is being intentionally used by the ruling party in Malaysia because of the need to gather votes from the Malays who benefit from current policy.

The impacts on Singapore

Considering the official discrimination, it is not surprising to see many Malaysian Chinese coming to Singapore for education. Many of the students are talented, ambitious and hardworking. By driving away a significant portion of its young talents, Malaysia suffers from brain drain. The universities are not benefitting from an otherwise more vibrant and more competitive academic culture. The majority of university students, who know that their places are protected by the government, may not work hard enough in their pre-U institutions, leading to a less competitive schooling population in general. Moreover, many of the Malaysians studying overseas do not wish to go back, where discrimination in employment, particularly in civil service, is but a continuation of discrimination in education. Because of the entrenched racial discrimination and the disappointment created by the unfair election results, Malaysian students are likely to continue to flow to Singapore to study where their talents and abilities are recognized and rewarded.

The lessons for Singapore

Lastly, the education policy in Malaysia has lessons for Singapore to learn as well. We have three reasons for our confidence in educational equality in Singapore. Firstly no ethnic group is significantly disadvantaged in the past, so there is no sufficient justification for affirmative action. Secondly Singapore is a nation built on racial equity in various aspects, and the government and the general society recognize the critical importance of fairness that motivates citizens to work hard so as to unleash the potential of human resources that are considered the only “natural resources” in the tiny city-state. Lastly, the Malaysia experience in education has demonstration effect for Singapore, as it shows how divisive unfair racial policy can become. Such racial division will be amplified during the general election where people use their votes to express their dissatisfaction. Because of the three reasons above, students studying in Singapore have little to worry about educational inequality. Quite on the contrary, the Malaysian example serves as a lasting reminder to the Singapore government not to let its education go astray along a similar line. Hence, students can rest assured that they will be treated equally in a meritocratic system where race is not a factor of admission, despite living in a multi-ethnic society. 

The attraction of Singapore's education lies with its fairness. The government appeals to all segments of society for political support.  Financial assistanceand bursary are given to needy students, based on household not on race. While Singapore should not interfere with the domestic affairs of Malaysia, it should always remember the critical importance of meritocracy, which is an open secret behind the Asian Tiger’s success story.