I refer to the report University intake: True meritocracy needed . I am a Chinese Malaysian who took the Higher School Certificate in 1980. I ended up at the University of Singapore.

Allow me to make a few points:

some affirmative action in education is still needed, probably until the day when bumiputeras make up 90% or more of the total population.

allocation based strictly on race (60% bumi, 30% Chinese, 10% Indian & others) is not a good solution.

the current so-called meritocracy system without a common entrance exam is not meritocracy

at all. It can fool nobody, including those who benefitted from it. With both STPM and matriculation, you can argue all you want until the cows come home but nobody will believe that it is true meritocracy.

Now, let me suggest an alternative solution.

establish a common entrance exam (maybe the STPM) for university admission, just like Japan, Korea, Taiwan.

all bumi students are automatically given an 'x' number of points. Assuming a perfect score for the STPM is 75 points, all bumi students are given 10 extra points. These bonus point will be reduced at intervals and removed completely after, say, 20 years.

underprivileged non-bumi students may also be given these bonus point too, on appeal.

Let's face the fact. Non-bumi students are more inclined to excel in examinations. A full 100% meritocracy system will result in the majority of 'good' such as medicine, pharmacy, law and engineering being taken up only by the non-bumis

This is going to create social problems.