I saw this interview with one of malaysia's foremost human rights lawyers, Malik Imtiaz Sarwar on www.thenutgraph.com and thought that it was an interesting read. You can read it here.
He has some very insightful view points which are worth thinking about but I'll just pick on one of the minor points which relate to the recurring controvesy about overseas scholarships from the Public Service Department (PSD). The dude's an Asean scholar and he describes his experience thus :
When I was in Singapore, I had a chance to speak with the other Asean scholars — there were about 100 of us. And these were the top one percent of the students in the country, from various backgrounds. And when I asked them why they were there, the answer was uniform: "We couldn't get scholarships to study overseas, and the Singapore government offered us a place."
Of this number, I think one or two were eventually offered Public Service Department (PSD) scholarships and came back to Malaysia. But most of the rest stayed on in Singapore after completing their studies, and some eventually gave up their citizenships. I don't blame them — they went on to do something with their lives, with really great jobs. So the Asean scholarship was a lifeline for them and that, for me, was an eye-opener, you know. It was a real awakening.
While we in Malaysia are debating about the contribution that the 'other races' have made to nation building, our neighbour down South have simply creamed off the best of our talent to build their nation.
Sad but true.
Stupid and short-sighted but true.
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