It has been months since Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak announced the recalibrated budget and the scholarship conundrum for top SPM students seems to come to an imperfect but necessary conclusion, ostensibly.

The 744 top SPM 2013 leavers, who were granted bursary scholarships for 2014 and promised overseas scholarship should they fulfill the requirement stipulated by Public services department (JPA), now can poignantly decline their top university offers - including Cambridge, Oxford, Princeton and MIT - and perhaps mourn for their decision to forgo other scholarship offers in favor of the government’s promise.

As for the 714 top SPM 2015 leavers, fortunately they won the tug-of-war when the Najib administration announced that bursary scholarships for 2016 will be granted for all of them.

However, there’s one story that no one has been talking about or perhaps has been forgotten. One story that is so relevant to the upcoming Sarawak state elections that I think, as a Sarawakian, keeping this out from public discourse is a disservice to the people.

The people deserve to know the truth.

To help people understand what happens in regard to Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan Satem’s promise for the Sarawakian bursary 2014 scholars, I developed the chronology of the event as below;

Jan 14, 2016 - Amidst the release of A-Level results, it was observed that JPA closed down the overseas scholarship application portal. The bursary 2014 scholars later confirmed with a JPA officer, one Puan Aifaa, that the scholarship will be discontinued amidst falling government revenue.

Jan 23, 2016 - It was reported through various news portal and through the social media of Adenan that the state government “ will help the students”, referring to the affected Sarawakian bursary 2014 holders, and that he “have given instructions to Yayasan Sarawak to find ways on how best to help them.” Adenan also “welcomed the affected students to present their petition to the state government.”

Jan 26, 2016 - The affected students met Yayasan Sarawak officer and submitted petition , pleading Yayasan Sarawak to sponsor them overseas in the case JPA fail to keep up to its promise.

Jan 28, 2016 - Prime Minister Najib in his budget recalibration speech announced that all bursary 2014 holders will be sponsored for local institution of higher learning, contrary to the promise given 2 years back.

Jan 29, 2016 - Contacting Yayasan Sarawak officer, Muhammad Rahman, it is confirmed that the state government has decided “to follow suit the decision” made by federal government and JPA to sponsor bursary 2014 holders locally.

Feb 12, 2016 - Yayasan Sarawak officer, Muhammad Rahman, later insisted that the foundation will come in to assist the student only “if JPA reject our application through e-profiling” and students must submit a copy of letter of rejection by JPA.

On what ground would the rejection be based on?

Clear enough, it is absurd for the Sarawak state government to muddle through such response to the students. Requesting a rejection letter from JPA is equivalent to willfully shunning the students as almost every student had fulfilled the requirement stipulated by JPA. That said, on what ground would the rejection be based on?

A lot of us born and raised in Sarawak are from middle to lower income family background. We work our heart out to achieve what is expected of us by the government, only hoping the government will reciprocate. We do not see how, in anyway, the way Yayasan Sarawak handle our situation is for the best interest of us.

With due respect to Adenan, he did not word his promise in exact phrase of “sponsoring the affected students sponsors in case JPA fail to do so”. However, it is outrageous for politician to make such ambiguous statement and be able to get out of it without offering anything substantial.

Again and again, the students’ conundrum had been used by political opportunist to gain popularity and favorability among the rakyat rather than seeing it as a crisis that need to be resolved. And Adenan is no different, especially when the state election is looming.

Notably, the state government decision is in odd with the latest manifesto released by Adenan, of which the eleventh point of the first part of the manifesto states “recognises and develops the potential of our youths for our future”. If that doesn’t mean supporting the crème de la crème of the state to their already secured top 20 university, then what is it?

Even before the first vote is cast, there marks the blemish on Adenan’s Sarawak manifesto.

Dear Sarawakians, if you happen to see this, here’s my plea - make your choice wise and put the people who walk their talk to rule the hornbill state. And don’t vote only, that’s not the end, please hold the people in power accountable for whatever they have or might say and promise.

Judgment be left to you, I rest my case.