Finally, Mahathir concedes he screwed the merit system

Finally, Mahathir concedes he screwed the merit system Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad in a statement (FMT Sept 4, 2010) finally admitted that he and the Umno government intentionally discriminated against innocent non Bumiputra students by denying their educational rights as enshrined in the Constitution. He said: "If we use the merit system , half of the university students (Bumiputeras) don't qualify..." What one can gather from his statement is that the education system over the past 53 years has failed to produce Bumiputera students to meet the set requirement by Umno's own higher educational qualification merits. Despite the billions spent to improve the educational achievements among Bumiputeras, citizens of this country are now been told by this longest serving Malaysian Prime Minister that Bumiputera students in Malaysia can only survive upon discrimination against their fellow non Bumi students. What a shame! The former Prime Minister also revealed the truth on why local public universities are constantly dropping in international standard ratings. He admitted that half of the undergraduates did not qualify for entry into universities but were nevertheless granted places merely on race considerations. I wonder how he justifies such brutal educational injustices. The moment a government tolerates such discrimination, it is actually planning to fail the country and its citizens over the years to come. By implementing this racist based policies, thousands of fully qualified non Bumiputera students are cruelly denied entry into matriculation courses , local public universities intakes as well the PSD scholarships. To summarise Mahathir's statement, he as the former prime minister and those in power ruling this country today clearly do not implement meritocracy in local university intakes, half of our university students are actually non qualifiers for higher education. Fully qualified non Bumiputera students are oppressed and suppressed by the implementation of racially biased educational discrimination. The Umno-led Barisan Nasional government over the past 40 years have conveniently violated article 8 and 12 of Federal Constitution. Article 8 by clause (1) provides that all persons are equal before the law and entitled to its equal protection. Clause 2 states: “Except as expressly authorised by this Constitution, there shall be no discrimination against citizens on the ground only of religion, race, descent, gender or place of birth in any law or in the appointment to any office or employment under a public authority or in the administration of any law relating to the acquisition, holding or disposition of property or the establishing or carrying on of any trade, business, profession, vocation or employment.”

In respect of education, Article 12 provides that there shall be no discrimination against any citizen on the grounds only of religion, race, descent or place of birth (i) in the administration of any educational institution maintained by a public authority, and, in particular, the admission of pupils or students or the payment of fees and (ii) in providing out of the funds of a public authority financial aid for the maintenance or education of pupils or students in any educational institution (whether or not maintained by a public authority and whether within or outside Malaysia).

In respect of religion, Article 12 provides that (i) every religious group has the right to establish and maintain institutions for the education of children in its own religion, and (ii) no person shall be required to receive instruction in or take part in any ceremony or act of worship of a religion other than his own and that for this purpose the religion of a person under the age of eighteen years shall be decided by his parent or guardian.