Arbibi Ashoy brought up the government's failure to efficiently utilise the resources that they put so much taxpayers' money into. Perhaps, there is a fundamental flaw with how the entire scholarship system is built.

Many sponsors send students to world-class universities but they don't seem to have a world-class programme for making the most out of what they spend. Here is my experience and what I think of it.

I went to the Public Services Department last December to ask for help in becoming an intern with a government department during my term holidays so that I could experience working with the government that has so graciously funded my education.

I handed in my letter and spent some time explaining my reasons for bringing the matter up. My main reasons included the attractiveness of foreign opportunity, a lack of understanding on my future job and the possibilities of tailoring my education to suit my job's need once I had a good idea what it was about.

As Arbibi Ashoy mentioned, wages in some other countries are far above Malaysia's. But I want to serve my country. I am two years into my scholarship with two to go, and I don't know anything about what I am going to do when I graduate.

I do biomedical engineering and I can tailor my remaining two years to further specialise in research, clinical procedures or even organising health systems just to name a few options.

Having an idea of my future job would obviously help. I also felt the need for a programme to bring home students who went abroad for internships and took this along with me to the PSD.

However, I was told there and then by a particular department in the PSD (which spends millions a year on scholarships) that they were not directly in charge of internships and could not help me.

Instead, I received a letter that gave me the 'go ahead' to directly contact the department that I intended to work for. Great. Terima kasih, tuan.

My main concern is not the technicalities of my suggestion. I'm more concerned with PSD's openness to change and improvement.

How about the carrot and not the stick? How about making our government one worth serving. If it think it already is, then show me. After all, it gave me RM800,000 to study. I appreciate it very much, and I have my country in mind.

I am sure the PSD can be a much better employer than just having its representative throw out a sincere idea like mine. Hey, I'm non-bumiputera. Does that matter? I'm Malaysian. I want to serve my country.

Will PSD let me do a bit? Will it put me in a position where I can see my training put to good use? Or are those positions 'reserved'?

There are two things here. When you are inefficient (I just cited an example), you need to change. The PSD shouldn't deny this. They have many capable, willing, talented people around them.