By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
June 07, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, June 7- All SPM top scorers should get overseas Public Service Department (PSD) scholarships instead of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) grants if Malaysia wants to retain the country’s human talent, DAP has said.
Putrajaya announced yesterday that 500 special education grants would be disbursed by 1MDB to rejected applicants to study locally. The categories (annual): Scholarships to public universities (RM7,500), scholarships for critical courses in private universities (RM15,000), and grants for non-critical courses (RM7,500).
“This pledge to award overseas scholarships equally to all top students is necessary to win Malaysia’s future by escaping the middle-income trap to become a high-income economy with USD15,000 per capita income…Malaysia would be sending a wrong message if we reward mediocrity instead of excellence, do not have a level-playing field that is fair to the best and brightest and allow the brain drain to continue,” said DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng in a statement today.
Lim repeated his call for the Najib administration to make public the results of those who were awarded overseas scholarships, and accused Barisan Nasional (BN) for failing to uphold transparency and accountability by not doing so.
The Penang Chief Minister said that MCA was trying to “distract” attention by attacking his administration for not having enough money to provide scholarships to top students in the state, in response to MCA’s claims yesterday that Penang had vast wealth to spend on overseas scholarships because Penang came out top in investments with RM 12.2 billion in 2010.
“If MCA cannot differentiate between foreign and domestic investments with revenue then MCA does not deserve to be part of government. Investments are held by the private sector to spend to generate jobs and economic growth, not revenue for the state government to spend.
“Further the Penang PR state government is still trying to clean up years of BN’s misrule and abuse of power in the state that caused RM230 million in losses to Majlis Perbandaran Seberang Perai(MPSP) until MPSP became practically bankrupt and the Tang Hak Ju land scam that costs the state RM40 million,” added Lim.
Lim said that despite revenue constraints, the Penang government has continued to award loans at local public universities to all deserving Penang students, and also increased primary and secondary scholl grants to poor students.