Bila Budak Gayat

I wanted to post a report (and kutuk2) of Badut's wedding; but something disturbed me so much that that has to wait.

Allen called just now - JPA (which previously only offered scholarship for twinning to those destined for the States) had recently decided to allow selected scholars to attempt entries to the Ivy League. Those who manage to get an entry do not have to go through the twinning program (4 years ++ in Malaysia and the remaining 2 in the States).

What nearly made both Allen and I fainted was the fact that out of 48 scholars selected - 42 were non-Malays and only 6 were Malays. Even worse, the criterion was not even that onerous - a CGPA of 3.5 above!

Which means of hundreds and hundreds of Malay school-leavers who scored in SPM and passed through the rigorous scholarship process - only 6 managed to score CGPA of 3.5 above for their foundation studies so far (which ironically I was told are made up of only English and pre-Calculus subjects!)

40 were Chinese and 2 were Indians! If you were to take the weighted average by population; the statistics would have been too scary to calculate.

WHAT HAPPEN TO OUR TOP KIDS AFTER THE GRUESOME SPM WHEN THEY CAN'T EVEN GET A RELATIVELY EASY CGPA OF 3.5 ABOVE IN THEIR EARLY FOUNDATION COURSE!

I don't want to brag here - but all four of us in Scotland when we did our A-Levels scored well throughout the public school years. Fadli got the A-Level prizes for Maths and Further Maths and I for Physics and Chemistry. Allen and Jita consistently maintained top range results and straight As.

And to think that we spent our time playing cards! (as for Allen sleeping!)

When we went to the uni, throughout their uni years, I know Allen and Fadli were never beaten in exams by any other Malaysians in their department - Malays or non-Malays. They were only beaten by Singaporean Chinese - and even then once in a blue moon.

Likewise I maintained the top spot in the department in my first year (what happened after the first year was a different matter).

And again - to think that we spent most of our days languishing aimlessly and playing cards at Jita's apartment at Earl's Court!

As far as I can remember, it wasn't that difficult and anyone who scored 10A1s should not have any problem getting First Class if they don't skive classes, attend all tutorials and pay some attention. You can even get away with it (like Chamat, who spent most of his time in London and still scored First Class from Bristol).

So what really happened?

A few possible reasons:

1) Complacency - especially since they are still in the euphoria mood of scoring 25A1s in SPM. Then the "kampung" mentality kicks in when half of the people in their classrooms they have known one way or another - so people begin to slack off.

2) Bercinta - the little overgrown meat down there (or the lumps hanging just above the abdomen) swells way much earlier than it should and everything else is relegated to second priorities.

3) Gayat - the sudden freedom.

4) Plain lazy - maybe devoid of any competition; or they just view the non-Malays as completely out of their league altogether and prefer to become jaguh kampung Ulu Banat.

When I was a scholar, I was satisfied that I earned the grudging respect of the non-Malays in my uni or those non-Malays who know me from other unis - because none of them had ever indicated they doubted that I deserved my scholarship.

Be it at a public school or unis - we beat the non-Malays easily; or competed with them on equal terms.

And that wasn't even long ago; it was only 10 years ago for God sake!

If we can't even score 3.5 CGPA after getting 25A1s in SPM - what hope do we have for the future? I wish the monkeys at Umno's General Assembly were more concerned about this than the greed to ask for more and more contracts......