via Lim Kit Siang’s blog:
I’m a former student from a famous high school in Bukit Mertajam. Each year, my school ‘produced’ many excellent students and intellectuals such as doctors, engineers, lawyers, etc, for the community and nation.
This year also the same. My school achieved most satisfactory results in both SPM and STPM. But sadly, among those ‘good’ students, more than half will pursue their studies at private colleges, such as Inti, Nilai.
Most of them have done the same thing after receiving their results. Guess what? Yup, they applied for Singapore’s universities. I guess about 15 people got the offer from Singapore. I think all of them will accept the offer, no doubt. What is so surprising about the small number of 15 students?? All of them are top students in my school!! According to the Singapore government’s policy, they will be bonded for 3 years. As they will receive attractive salaries and stable permanent jobs in Singapore, few of them will come back to develop their career in Malaysia.
We hear this every year, the stories are all about the same and they are sad in a way BUT honestly speaking, do TOP students guarantee Malaysia continued economic growth and more jobs for the people? Excuse my pessimism, but do our public universities even have the capability to nurture these students into a great engineer, scientist, economist or what not?
So what happens if the government starts offering scholarships to these top students but send them to some universities in the world which couldn’t even make it to the world’s top 100? Is that more prestigious than NUS or even UM? Do the students themselves even want these scholarships or would they think Singapore offers a better education (NUS at 19th place surely says something about their quality isn’t it)?
Ultimately, think for yourself: does Malaysia owe you anything?