Former South African president Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

Education is the key needed to liberate society from the prison of ignorance. Access to quality education is a prerequisite of incubating an intellectual class which springboards a nation to greater heights. Unfortunately as days pass by, that very springboard is being taken away from our future generation.

Malaysians from all backgrounds were enraged when the cabinet decided to suspend specific Public Service Department (JPA) scholarships. According to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Wee Ka Siong, this decision was made due to the falling national revenue.

I suspect likeminded Malaysians would have accepted this decision if the cabinet members were not carrying so much unresolved political baggage with them.

This is not the first, nor will it be the last. According to the 2016 federal expenditure, allocation for JPA scholarships were RM1,653,054,100 - which was already a reduction from 2015’s allocation of RM1,931,488,100.

Mara has also significantly rolled back on its student loans, especially for postgraduate courses. If you’re thinking, “Wait a minute, I am not a student with a scholarship. Why am I affected?”

Well, you actually are affected to a large extent.

The Education Ministry - which covers all students - had its budget on educational assistance slashed by 55.5 percent from RM873 million in 2015 to RM388 million in 2016. Meanwhile, the Higher Education Ministry experienced a substantial budget cut of RM2.4 billion from 2015 (a 15.3 percent reduction), with local public universities bearing the brunt of the cuts.

What baffles me is the timing for these cuts. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) just recently received a massive raise from the previous years. It now has a bloated budget of RM20.3 billion. That’s insanely high considering the country’s economic climate.

‘Blind and deaf to our needs’

While we sacrifice the future of our country by trimming the hopes and dreams of our brightest minds, the political oligarchs sit comfortably in their respective thrones blinded and deaf to the needs of the people.

While more and more money is being funneled to the Islamic Development Department (Jakim) for arbitrary religious policing, more and more dreams are crushed by the weakening of our educational institutions.

While the members in the PMO are engulfed in countless scandals, ranging from the 1MDB crisis to the purported mishandling of the Malaysian Islamic Economic Development Foundation’s (Yapeim) resources, the sons and daughters of Malaysians are facing a much tougher time bracing through this self-made storm.

JPA scholars are among the best and brightest of Malaysia. An attack against them is an attack against our future. These scholars will end up becoming the backbone of our nation. The very backbone which we are defunding, while the PMO is cheering. If anything, slash the budget of the PMO, not elsewhere.

We have approximately 70 ministers and countless special advisors who get paid like ministers. Why are their fates more important than the fates of Malaysia’s brightest? This is truly disheartening.

Let us also not forget that JPA scholarships are racially inclusive. Suspending it means that a lot of talented underprivileged non-bumiputeras will lose one of their only avenues to access quality education abroad. A lot of us will know of at least one non-bumiputera friend who’s studying abroad. Often that friend is a JPA scholar. This reality will soon be a fading memory.

I am aware of the global economic slowdown. I am aware of the depreciating oil prices which are taking a toll on the Malaysian economy. This awareness, however, gets confronted by an insensitive response when inefficient, non-essential departments get a raise at the expense of our future generation.

This is when Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Ahmad Maslan’s suggestions are ignored, if not ridiculed. This is when Urban Well-being, Housing and Local Government Minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan’s suggestions are depicted to be insensitive.

This is when well-intentioned suggestions are seen to be insensitive and out of touch with reality. The trust deficit is the underlying cause to these problems.

Malaysians from all backgrounds should rally behind our future leaders, the young ones. Demand for their future to be secured as they’ll soon be in charge of our future. If we fail, we not only fail them but we would fail ourselves and our beloved country, too.

SYED SADDIQ SYED ABDUL RAHMAN is a part-time lecturer at Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA) Malaysia and is Asia’s best debater, winning the United Asia Debate Championship in May 2015.