Politicians from both sides of the divide today set aside political allegiances as they blasted the Public Services Department (PSD) for the “recurring” issue of unfair disbursement of scholarships.

While it did not stop them taking pot shots at each other, they managed to agree that the government needs to be more transparent and explain in detail how exactly students are chosen for whatever field being offered.

They also questioned why there are always top-scorers being passed up for scholarships, while at the same time lower performers are sponsored to go for critical courses.

NONE DAP secretary-general and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng ( left ) said it is unacceptable that high flyers are not given the help they deserve, stressing that they should not be forced to accept whatever is being offered while they appeal for the PSD to consider sending them for their course of choice.

“Why should the people who have not done any wrong be the ones who have to appeal? This is not only ridiculous but a gross injustice that top students who have done no wrong, must appeal to fumbling and incompetent PSD officials to be awarded scholarships.

“Should not responsibility be placed upon the JPA to correct their errors? This is a case of punishing the victim instead of the perpetrator. If the federal government thinks they can sweep this issue under the carpet, they are wrong.

“This is exactly the kind of issue that has contributed to the growing national brain drain problem. How are young Malaysians supposed to believe that they live in a fair and just society when such straightforward matters cannot be conducted in a transparent and proper manner?”

Publish the selection criteria

Wanita MCA secretary-general Chew Lee Giok focussed on the need for the PSD to come up with clear guidelines on the selection criteria and make them public.

“PSD should come up with clear guidelines on the selection criteria, for transparency. Thus PSD’s decision taken in the distribution of PSD scholarships would be more convincing and will reduce unnecessary disputes.

PSD’s selection committee should conduct a review on the granting of scholarships not only to check if there are abuses in the selection, but to rectify the chaos and to avoid the occurrence of this issue year after year.

It is necessary that clear screening guidelines be published to explain what criteria are used in the selection process. PSD should explain to unsuccessful applicants reasons for their applications being rejected. This will make the application process to be more transparent,” she said.

NONE MIC Youth chief T Mohan ( right ) likewise urged for greater transparency, calling on the PSD to publicly reveal the full list of scholarship recipients.

“We feel that JPA should be transparent and publish the full list of recipients as well as their results to ensure that there was fairness and justice in the distribution of the scholarships. This disclosure should be published in all the major newspapers in the country,” he said.

‘DAP are troublemakers’

MCA Youth secretary-general Chai Kim Sen agreed that the PSD had committed blunders in disbursing scholarships, but took DAP to task for “misleading” the public over the issue.

He attacked the opposition party for riding on the issue without providing any solutions to the long-standing problem.

 “DAP is only good at instigating problems so as to gain the support of the public by making them restless and impulsive, thus preventing them from thinking of ways to solve the problem. If MCA Youth is a show, then the DAP is its greatest director and actor as well.

NONE “The problem has not been resolved and the decision to stir up the affair will only slow matters down. The officials of the Public Services Department had obviously mishandled the situation, and this has nothing to do with their policy biasness,” he said.

Chai ( left ) stressed that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had already announced that all students who score 8As and higher are eligible for PSD scholarships, be it for local  or overseas courses, and insisted that the outcome “was only possible thanks to MCA’s insistence”.

“I therefore call on all sectors to be patient while waiting for MCA to look through their appeals.”