I refer to the Malaysiakini report QUIT! NGOs tell MIC, MCA, Gerakan ministers .

The Education Minister decided sometime ago that students were to be restricted to take a maximum of ten subjects for the SPM examination so that scholarship awards would be based on the 10 subjects to prevent students from scoring more ‘As’ in additional subjects to gain an ‘unfair’ advantage in competition for the scholarship awards.

That decision would discourage students from taking language subjects in Chinese and Tamil when they are not sure of obtaining an A for these subjects.

The recent cabinet decision to now allow students to take a maximum of 12 subjects for the SPM would now not discourage students who might not be confident of obtaining an ‘A’ in Chinese or Tamil in signing up for it for the SPM. But the Education Ministry has a way of creating a dilemma for the students, possibly because of their training in BTN to pursue the ‘Ketuanan Melayu’ agenda.

The secretary-general of the Education Ministry has announced that the results of the Chinese and Tamil subjects would only be counted for scholarship consideration if they were taken within a maximum of ten subjects. Thus, the recent Cabinet decision does not offer total relief to students who faced the dilemma previously; they can now sit for the language papers but without the incentive to do well.

That decision confirms the belief that the Education Ministry indirectly discourages students who want to study the Chinese and Tamil languages since their SPM score would not the recognised for a scholarship consideration while all other subjects have no restriction.

Students who sit for Japanese or French in SPM would have their ‘A’s in Japanese or French counted for a scholarship consideration even if they were taken as the twelfth subject. Why should Chinese and Tamil languages be exempted?

If the Chinese or Indian students are considered better-placed to obtain good results in their mother tongue subjects, and as such these subjects should not be counted for scholarship purposes, then the Malay language should also be excluded for consideration for the Malay students. That is true competition.

There are also subjects on Islamic studies which the Muslims have an advantage over non- Muslims. These subjects should also not be considered for scholarship awards to be fair.

Education is meant to develop human resources besides making the students useful citizens. It is not the place to introduce the so-called affirmative action in curbing mental development so that others can catch up. The myth created by Dr Mahathir’s Mohamad ‘Malay Dilemma’ that the Malays are mentally inferior to others has been proven wrong.

Indeed, the Malays in Malaysia are not classified by what Mahathir portrayed in his work, and they need no affirmative action but only the awareness that those who are in power are using their name and are tarnishing their image so that they can continue to plunder the nation.

The Malaysian government service has a way of undoing the ‘good intention, if ever’ of the cabinet and they have always a way to restrain the cabinet from moving in the right direction.

But since Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yasin considered the BTN perfect despite a cabinet decision to have revision of BTN courses, one wonders whether the Education Ministry’s secretary-general did not follow the minister’s order to undo the solution to the problem created by Muhyiddin himself in limiting students to taking a maximum of 10 subjects for SPM.

Why should there be hatred against the Chinese and Tamil languages just because the government practices NEP against the Chinese and Indians? The government claims that it practices meritocracy and and it decides that only the best ten subjects would be considered no matter how many subjects a student takes for the examination. The government is seen to discriminate against students taking the Chinese and Tamil languages for SPM, including Malay students who are now in Chinese schools.

The number of students who would be so affected might not be numerous, but the rule would discourage students in general from taking those subjects for the SPM.