Top scorer fails to get favoured varsity course Pemerhati: It is most surprising and shocking that Ng Yi Ling was unable to get into any of the nine public universities to do pharmacy, dentistry or medical courses, despite getting straight As.

For decades, the minorities have experienced blatant discrimination whenever they have applied to study in public tertiary institutions and it seems to be getting worse with the passage of time.

Could this terrible discrimination of Yi Ling be due to Umno’s retaliation and revenge against the minorities for rejecting it at the latest polls and turning it into an illegitimate minority government?

The answer can only be known with certainty if we can get hold of the ethnic breakdown of the students studying various courses at public universities over the past several years from a reliable non-Umno-linked source.

Clearwater: All the nine local universities she applied to must be commended for their dogged determination not to be included in Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings’ Top 200.

They succeeded again in 2013-14, none were there, compared to neighbouring National University of Singapore (NUS), which is at no 26, and National Technological University (NTU) at no 76.

Year after year, this utterly disgraceful discrimination repeats itself. Are some people not ashamed of themselves?

Awakened: If Utusan Malaysia still does not know “Apa lagi Cina mahu?”, this is a good example of why there was a Chinese tsunami as described by PM Najib Razak in the last GE.

The blatant racist policy of Umno-BN is doing injustice to many young who worked hard and aspired to be professionals in order to serve their country. They were denied of a course of their choice even though they have almost perfect score.

Yi Ling can ask: “Apa lagi universiti universiti mahu supaya saya dapat kursus yang saya mahu?” The injustice inflicted by the racist policies to these top scorers is very glaring.

Anonymous_4196: I hope Malaysia will not lose another talented young person to another country. On one hand, we are trying to lure back talented Malaysians and on the other hand, we are giving them away. It’s totally counter productive.

Restless_Native: I am “outside” the system now and my sons attend public universities in the United States where we have been living for 28 years. In 1972, I did not apply to Universiti Malaya since I knew what the outcome would be. Several in my batch left for England when studies were inexpensive by today’s rates.

In 1983, my brother was given a place in Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston after his STP.

He was given a second-year entry into MU for Science! He had earlier gone to the Public Services Department where he was denied a scholarship and later to Petronas where the board asked him to pursue the same engineering course at a local university for an award of RM2,000.

MIT offered him a scholarship since their policy, like all top tier universities here, is that “no student who has been offered a place will reject the offer on grounds of lack of funds”.

These institutions will award a foreigner a scholarship on the basis of merit (despite knowing that the foreigner may not stay and contribute to the host country) when his/her own country denies the same.

Boonpou: Although I did not scored all As, I was definitely good enough for Universiti Malaya. But all I received were offers from other universities in Malaysia to major in Commerce.

I was in the Science stream since my O and A levels. What do I know about Commerce? As a consequence, my family borrowed all the money they could to send me to the US.

I did my baccalaureate at New York University (NYU). Subsequently, I managed to obtain scholarships for my Masters at Yale and PhD at Columbia.

In all honesty, without the discriminatory racial and religious policies in Malaysia, I would not have achieved my academic credentials and presently an associate professor at a north American university.

I know lots of other academics from Malaysia who would never think of going “home.” Most of the time, we would laugh at the shallow level of intellectual scholarship being produced in Malaysia.

In the end, the real question is: Who is the real loser when the country encourages such massive brain drain?

Odin: Dear Miss Ng Yi Ling, I fully agree with what many of my fellow-readers in Malaysiakini have said, and that is, for you to apply to Singapore for a place in a university there as well as a scholarship.

Believe – and I mean BELIEVE – that you will get both, and you shall. The power of positive thinking is incredible and astounding.

When you have graduated, stay put there and put the skills you will have acquired to soothe and heal, to mend and rejuvenate to the best of your ability as repayment to the Singapore people for the opportunity they have given you to realise your admirable dream. You are Chinese and as such, you have hardly any future in your neck of the woods.

Offering you a course in nursing is a great insult to you. I am surprised that they didn’t offer you a course in midwifery.

This is not to suggest that nursing and midwifery are to be scorned, only that the vocations do not commensurate with your level of education. Remember, believe. Best of luck.

JustAMalaysian: I have left secondary school so many ages ago and have been out of touch with entry requirements for the various courses offered in our universities. Can someone please enlighten me whether we need STPM certificate to qualify for a nursing course?

Another point, what is the grade of a fresh nurse in the public service? I think a fresh doctor is U41 if I am not mistaken. If that is so, a nurse’s grade must be below U30. How insulting it is to ask a top STP student to study nursing. Can someone help me on this?

Vijay47: The moment I saw Malaysiakini’s headline, I of course knew that the student concerned had to be a non-Malay. Such shameful deprivation of opportunity never occurs to Malays.

I must also protest DAP leader Teng Chang Khim wanting to meet several ministers to seek their assistance. Ms Ng does not have to beg anyone for anything. With her excellent results, a course of her choice at a university of her choice should be hers for the taking.

Don’t the ‘ketuanan’ types have any shame coming out with such unfairness? I wonder what the minister of education has to say. He most probably would hold that the young woman should be glad that she was accepted to at least a nursing course.

Dark Ages: Yi Ling, if you could make it down to Australia and offered a course of your choice in Perth, I will offer you a free room until you graduate.

I have five postgraduate children, and I will be very proud to ‘adopt’ (treated as one) another brilliant kid in my family.

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