Merit-based excellence

There is a book entitled Excellence by former US secretary of education John W Gardner, who argues in it that ‘excellence’ has an absolute value dimension and cannot simply become and remain a populist or merely a democratic ideal. He nevertheless argued for both excellence and equality to be pursued as important democratic ideals.

The current dialogue about how the Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam (JPA or Public Services Department) awards and decides on the recipients of its annual 2000 foreign study scholarships drives home the core issues, content and arguments of Gardner’s concerns.

How should JPA decide which SPM leavers are Malaysia’s best, and should be given an opportunity to study in premier foreign universities to become the finest amongst the best the rest of the world can offer?

Can Malaysian students ever become some of the best in the world? Why not?

Let’s rephrase the question, should we simply allow the best of our best to become the best in other parts of the world through migration and the nurturing of others?

Many of them have already proven themselves in Singapore, and now increasingly also in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. England is our older nurturing ground for excellence.

Pivotally, is the dialogue about the 2000 scholarships really an argument about how the New Economic Policy (NEP) is implemented or is it not really an argument about who are our true scholars and future leaders will govern this nation beyond 2020?

If there are those who think that the JPA scholarships are only about the implementation of the NEP; they are fundamentally wrong.

JPA awards scholarships for the best in Malaysia to study aboard and become the best in the world, in my mind.

Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) or other relevant agencies can offer scholarships uniquely as an NEP Agenda. That was the precise reason Tun Abdul Razak set up MARA in the first place.

Bank Negara, for example, should offer scholarships to develop and create bankers who are excellent for themselves and maybe for the entire banking industry.

Likewise, JPA is the sole federal department responsible for the human capital development for the entire nation; and must nurture world-class Malaysians for future governance of this nation. Any thing else is a shortchange.

‘Fair play principle’

Therefore, I fail to understand what the fuss is all about in the media, other than the fact that the current system is neither transparent nor open and therefore left to too much bias of misinterpretation. If we can evolve an open and transparent system, not open to abuse by overzealous public servants, everyone will applaud the system.

Such a change will always be painful. But March 8 (12th General Elections results) requires it.

And, like the many open and transparent contests out there in the media today, for all kinds of promotional products, the results can be well accepted and agreed to by all concerned. All that is needed is some fine-tuning of the current JPA scholarship awarding system.

As a student of the subject of dignity and destiny of all human beings, I believe that we must help every human person to strive and achieve their potential for excellence. Sure, not everyone has the same level of intelligence or other endowments, but so long as the race and contest is open and transparent; the losers will accept the winners by the ‘fair play principle’ alone.

I used to be a kampung-quality sprinter from Sungai Petani. I was the fastest in Sungai Petani for my age group. Then, I applied and got into the Royal Military College (RMC). At the RMC, I faced the likes of Winston Simon, Yoong Yin Fah and Mohd Nasir Hashim.

Soon enough, and quickly enough, I decided to focus on my other favourite event, the triple jump. There was less competition. You see, open, transparent and fair competition drove home the fact of my non-competitiveness in the particular track event. Open and fair competition always has the same effects on every one, other than those who are in a complete state of denial.

Likewise also in rugby; I could not make it into the RMC first team. That did not deter my interest in rugby. At university I still chose to go to the rugby trials, and was selected and did in fact play for the university’s red and blue teams.

I even went on to play for Cobra, Selangor and the Malaysian under-23. The other point being made here is that, maybe, some of us are in fact late developers.

But, such latent talent cannot become a probability and chance bet by any system of scholarship awards. The opportunity costs are too high.

When JPA selects their 2000 Government of Malaysia scholarship holders for a particular year, they must select the best based on clear and transparent set of criteria, and not based on arbitrary decisions.

What then is the way forward for JPA, to do it right the next time round and every time in the future?

SAT scores

First and foremost, we must acknowledge and accept that Malaysia will always remain a small country, and that our future as a nation will always be defined by our competitiveness. We cannot be competitive without having the best human capital in the world.

The way to train them to be the best in the world is to send them to the best universities. And the challenge is to make sure that they become the best in their peer groups and thereby become world-class players.

To my mind there is no short-cut or back-door way of doing this. There is only one single and open, transparent way of doing this. It is what I have called the driving test model. After all the other necessary hurdles or tests are cleared, in driving, there is a real and final test wherein you have to either park in reverse into a four-pillar spot or side park into a specified space. That is a true test, and it will then become obvious if the candidate does not make it.

Therefore, for the JPA scholarships, one could do the same; make all applicants sit for the scholastic aptitude test (SAT) and use the score results to call them for the interviews.

They will finally qualify for the scholarship only if and when they get unconditional admission into any of the top universities they have applied to using their SAT scores.

Otherwise they are unsuccessful.

Even for the SAT Examination, let them study on their own and let them pay to sit it on their own. So long as such a system is open, transparent and fairly administered, we will have a common and open system to really determine scholastic ability based on ‘merit’.

Then the debate over whether 9A1s, or 10 A1s or 15A1s is good enough or even the subjective question of performance at the interview does not arise. The SAT, a world-class and US-based standardised evaluation system, will exclude the non-performers. It in fact becomes the equivalent of getting the F1 drivers license.

Even then, the ultimate is that they get admission into the selected and identified excellent universities all over the world. Only then do they qualify for the scholarship. Any system less objective than the one I have proposed would always leave a bad taste in the mouth because it is not entirely merit-based because the ultimate basis of the award is subjective for awarding to either A or B. The important part of selection is based on subjective and interpretive meanings which cannot be debated or argued objectively.

If the JPA scholarships are intended for ‘true scholars’ then our definition and meaning of scholarship must be the same and we must all mean the same thing when we use the word. Otherwise, we use non-scholarship-based definitions to choose scholars and make a mockery of the whole thing every year; convincing no one but ourselves about our Trip to Abilene.

This article is therefore dedicated to my good friend and classmate the chief of public services department Ismail Adam, as he struggles to justify and rationalise a system that cannot really be justified under current and conditions of transparency, change and challenge. I pray and hope however that he will be able to leave a positive and objective legacy of his definition of merit-based excellence before he retires.