Press statement by the Human Rights Party Malaysia
The Human Rights Party has called this Press Conference to bring to the attention of the authorities concerned and to the public at large, the dissatisfaction of the Indian community in the way the young of the community are being systematically denied opportunities for the JPA scholarships, for entrance into Public Universities and to the preferred Pre-University Matriculation program.
Prime Minister Najib keeps repeating that we are 1Malaysia, that we need to move out from middle income status to high income status, that the basis for affirmative action should be need and not race, and to increase the incomes of the bottom 40% of the population and so on in his Master Plan to take Malaysia on forward.
Now he needs to explain the dichotomy between his intentions and what is now happening on the ground . He needs to explain how we have these top performing Indian students being denied opportunities for:
1) JPA scholarships to do courses of their choice
2) Entrance to local Universities
3) Admission to the Matriculation Pre-university programs
It is the firm opinion of the Human Rights Party that these top Indian students are being denied their entitlement for the only reason that they are of the Indian community, a minority community in the country. Anyone who truly understand the processes of creating unity in any population knows that a unified population can only happen when fairness is felt in all affairs of life. Fairness, equality and equal opportunities are fundamental building blocks for building one nation. Besides, this is a fundamental right of citizens of any nation – the right to equality in all affairs of life.
And, that fairness must be felt in concrete terms such as in this case, in the selection of truly meritorious students for targeted higher education. When top performing students see their lesser performing peers getting scholarships, gaining admissions to the Public Universities and admissions to the preferred Pre-U Matriculation program, all semblance of fairness goes out of the window in one moment and with that any hope of a 1Malaysia. So, how can the unity envisioned in the 1Malaysia concept ever be attained. DS Najib, just what do you mean by 1Malaysia?
PM Najib talks about building a high income society. A high income society can only be built with a high performing citizenry
And that high performance can only come about in the citizenry by role models, by generally high expectations in society, in a reward system that is based on performance, by fairness in the system in rewarding high performance and by policies which truly nurtures high performers. It can never occur in a racially slanted systems, where criteria such as the race you are from or the colour of your skin or the religion you belong to, seem to be primary criterion. It can never occur in a system where the scales are permanently slanted like this.. ,So we ask, DS Najib, do you really understand this dichotomy, between intention and action?
PM Najib wants to institute needs based affirmative action as against race based affirmative action– today the Indians in West Malaysia are the most backward community among the 3 major communities. Any awards to the Indian community will be clearly justified on this basis. But the present selection of SPM students in no way reflects this policy. PM Najib wants to increase the incomes of the bottom 40% of the population. Many of these Indian students who have been denied the opportunities are from that bottom 40%. DS Najib, just what do you mean by all of this?
Year after year this same process repeats. Grossly biased selections of SPM students are made and the unfairly treated students and their parents vent their anger and frustration and then MCA and MIC put on an act of intervention and a few more students are added to the list and then it happens again the next year and so on. MCA and MIC attempt to be relevant with this wayang kulit. UMNO keeps the system going as is and a lot of hot air is spent in the process of press conferences such as these.
Why this hubris? Why do we not truly rise to the challenges of building a great Malaysia. Hubris gets us nowhere. We require a permanent and robust solution to this otherwise chronic problem of our society.
Apart from all of this, Malaysia seems to be the one of the very few remaining countries in the world that has an official discriminatory policy against its own minorities. Time has come for all these anachronistic policies to be abandoned and for us all to move on.
HRP demands that the entire process of selection be revamped to reflect fairness that is sorely needed in affairs of Malaysian life. HRP demands that this entire process be made transparent which includes the criteria for selection, the results of the selection, names of all those who applied, what they each scored according to the selection criteria, who were selected for the various programs and such relevant information. This can be posted in the MOE’s website.
Unless the Najib and UMNO led government picks up courage to do this and to make all such processes of the government transparent, the inevitable conclusion of the affected rakyat will be that Najib and UMNO just want to continue this ethnocentric system, just want to engage in rhetoric of 1Malaysia, and just want to get the votes, they do not really want to change the system to address the sorry state of the nation.
HRP will continue to highlight this problem till we see a permanent solution to it. We have arranged the following events and actions to highlight this issue for the current batch:
1) There is a petition campaign on line at the HRP website www.humanrightspartymalaysia.com. All are requested to download the form, get concerned people to sign it and then to fax it to the HRP headquarters at 03 22825245
2) On the 6th of June, all affected students are invited to attend a gathering at the HRP HQ on the 6th of June at 10..00am. The address is 6 Jln Abdullah, off Jln Bangsar, KL. Contact person is Mr. Sambulingam Tel: 010 2774 096.
3) On the 11th of June, affected students in the north are invited to a gathering at the Dewan Perbandaran Kulim , Kulim ( beside the Kulim Bus Station ) at 7.00pm. Contact Persons – Mr.Andy – 012-429-2817, Mr.Siva 013-440-4006, Mr.Ramu 012-444-2755, Mr.N.Ganesan 012-480-3284
4) If the Government does not satisfactorily address this situation as they have said by the 11th of June, a gathering is planned to show our continuing dissatisfaction at the Parliament Building on the 15th of June @ 11.00am. All fair minded Malaysians are invited. Contact person is Mr. Sambulingam Tel: 010 2774 096
You can also get more information at our website www.humanrightspartymalaysia.com.
N.Ganesan
Human Rights Party
The Human Rights Party has called this Press Conference to bring to the attention of the authorities concerned and to the public at large, the dissatisfaction of the Indian community in the way the young of the community are being systematically denied opportunities for the JPA scholarships, for entrance into Public Universities and to the preferred Pre-University Matriculation program.
Prime Minister Najib keeps repeating that we are 1Malaysia, that we need to move out from middle income status to high income status, that the basis for affirmative action should be need and not race, and to increase the incomes of the bottom 40% of the population and so on in his Master Plan to take Malaysia on forward.
Now he needs to explain the dichotomy between his intentions and what is now happening on the ground . He needs to explain how we have these top performing Indian students being denied opportunities for:
1) JPA scholarships to do courses of their choice
2) Entrance to local Universities
3) Admission to the Matriculation Pre-university programs
It is the firm opinion of the Human Rights Party that these top Indian students are being denied their entitlement for the only reason that they are of the Indian community, a minority community in the country. Anyone who truly understand the processes of creating unity in any population knows that a unified population can only happen when fairness is felt in all affairs of life. Fairness, equality and equal opportunities are fundamental building blocks for building one nation. Besides, this is a fundamental right of citizens of any nation – the right to equality in all affairs of life.
And, that fairness must be felt in concrete terms such as in this case, in the selection of truly meritorious students for targeted higher education. When top performing students see their lesser performing peers getting scholarships, gaining admissions to the Public Universities and admissions to the preferred Pre-U Matriculation program, all semblance of fairness goes out of the window in one moment and with that any hope of a 1Malaysia. So, how can the unity envisioned in the 1Malaysia concept ever be attained. DS Najib, just what do you mean by 1Malaysia?
PM Najib talks about building a high income society. A high income society can only be built with a high performing citizenry
And that high performance can only come about in the citizenry by role models, by generally high expectations in society, in a reward system that is based on performance, by fairness in the system in rewarding high performance and by policies which truly nurtures high performers. It can never occur in a racially slanted systems, where criteria such as the race you are from or the colour of your skin or the religion you belong to, seem to be primary criterion. It can never occur in a system where the scales are permanently slanted like this.. ,So we ask, DS Najib, do you really understand this dichotomy, between intention and action?
PM Najib wants to institute needs based affirmative action as against race based affirmative action– today the Indians in West Malaysia are the most backward community among the 3 major communities. Any awards to the Indian community will be clearly justified on this basis. But the present selection of SPM students in no way reflects this policy. PM Najib wants to increase the incomes of the bottom 40% of the population. Many of these Indian students who have been denied the opportunities are from that bottom 40%. DS Najib, just what do you mean by all of this?
Why this hubris? Why do we not truly rise to the challenges of building a great Malaysia. Hubris gets us nowhere. We require a permanent and robust solution to this otherwise chronic problem of our society.
Apart from all of this, Malaysia seems to be the one of the very few remaining countries in the world that has an official discriminatory policy against its own minorities. Time has come for all these anachronistic policies to be abandoned and for us all to move on.
HRP demands that the entire process of selection be revamped to reflect fairness that is sorely needed in affairs of Malaysian life. HRP demands that this entire process be made transparent which includes the criteria for selection, the results of the selection, names of all those who applied, what they each scored according to the selection criteria, who were selected for the various programs and such relevant information. This can be posted in the MOE’s website.
Unless the Najib and UMNO led government picks up courage to do this and to make all such processes of the government transparent, the inevitable conclusion of the affected rakyat will be that Najib and UMNO just want to continue this ethnocentric system, just want to engage in rhetoric of 1Malaysia, and just want to get the votes, they do not really want to change the system to address the sorry state of the nation.
1) There is a petition campaign on line at the HRP website www.humanrightspartymalaysia.com. All are requested to download the form, get concerned people to sign it and then to fax it to the HRP headquarters at 03 22825245
2) On the 6th of June, all affected students are invited to attend a gathering at the HRP HQ on the 6th of June at 10..00am. The address is 6 Jln Abdullah, off Jln Bangsar, KL. Contact person is Mr. Sambulingam Tel: 010 2774 096.
3) On the 11th of June, affected students in the north are invited to a gathering at the Dewan Perbandaran Kulim , Kulim ( beside the Kulim Bus Station ) at 7.00pm. Contact Persons – Mr.Andy – 012-429-2817, Mr.Siva 013-440-4006, Mr.Ramu 012-444-2755, Mr.N.Ganesan 012-480-3284
4) If the Government does not satisfactorily address this situation as they have said by the 11th of June, a gathering is planned to show our continuing dissatisfaction at the Parliament Building on the 15th of June @ 11.00am. All fair minded Malaysians are invited. Contact person is Mr. Sambulingam Tel: 010 2774 096
You can also get more information at our website www.humanrightspartymalaysia.com.
N.Ganesan
Human Rights Party
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