One of my friend lately quit school. He was in one of the local tertiary institution and he’s a Malay. He cited he has financial difficulties with the school as his main reason. Such bollocks! We all know, espiecally Malays have alot of financial assistance scheme and bursaries. I know, because I’m a ‘product’ of such financial aid myself.
Despite my advise and help, he still quit and decided to scour around for a job instead.
We all know that the Malays being the indigenous people of Singapore, by law we are entitled to free education up to university level. I think that gave us that ‘crutch’ mentality, maybe such help made us the Malay thinking that we’re no better than second rate citizen out for a handout? Should we Malays rally and call for that free education law to be abolished?
I’m totally for it. However after looking up the education statistics lately, albeit my favorable position and stance on such abolishment, I think such move will actually deter and not help in the education progress for all Malays.
I was totally astonished by the statistics for which I looked up. I know that our Malay student enrollment and passing rate was far lesser than other races in Singapore but to be totally left behind in terms of numbers, I was totally surprised.
Well statistics don’t lie.
As to date, we have some 4.4 million Singaporeans in population and the breakdown in ethnicity is
– Chinese 76.8%
– Malay 13.9%
– Indian 7.9%
– other 1.4%
If you look below at the latest education statistics (2003), the O’Level passing rate (At least 5 credits) for Malays is meagerly at 59%! While the other races was well above the 73% mark! That’s horrendous.
If we look at the A’Level cohort. If one were to ratio the number of Malay students taking the A’Level, at 500 plus students, that makes about to 4.6% of the total A’Level cohort. Not proportional to the Malay 13.9% population. The level of passing is also well below the overall passing graph.
While the below graph the number of Malay polytechnic graduates as of 2005. It shows that the Malay polytechnic graduates numbers this time are comparable to the number of Indians polytechnic graduates. At last count, isn’t the Malay population is twice of the Indians? Shouldn’t in retrospect, Malay polytechnic graduates be double?
And now we look at Malay university graduates. The numbers are totally mind boggling. Malay university graduates numbers are drawffed by other races. Indians vs Malays 5:1, while other races vs Malays 2:1 and Chinese vs Malays 34:1 !!
The question is now, how do we as a Malays promote education within our community?
I know for my own background, my parents has never really instill the importance or urgency of education in me while I was young. As I’ve told someone recently, I wish they did, but my parents brought me up to the best of their ability they know how. I guess it has to start at home and with the parents itself. So readers. young and old, if you’ve a child, keep vigil on their education.
Melayu Boleh!
I totally support that. In fact I was having a conversation with a friend recently about the free education for malays. I think serves only to do so much more damage not just in mindset but also adds one additional hindrance towards real inter-racial relations.
I mean if we’re singaporeans more than anything else, then race shouldn’t matter right?
And if free education were meant to help us the ‘unfortunate’ race, then it should be implemented to all races too right?
i think if we were to straight away abolish the free education, there will be much resistance and there will be immediate impact. good or bad that impact, we’ll never know
i think with ‘soft blows’ gradually, with phases, abolishing it might be best IMO. like i said, the free education gave us the ‘crutch’ mentality. If the non malays can get through school with loans and scholarships, why not us Malays. Maybe it’s best to start with nothing and building up on that.
I’ve heard plenty of times my non Malay friends grumbling about our free education, yet I’ve seen many Malays youth not taking up that opportunity
and the non malays despite without the aid we’re given have far excelled. maybe it’s deep rooted being the immigrants they are, they’ve the instinct to ‘excel’ or be left behind
we are not unfortunate.
We were deemd to be in this position due to colonialism.
If you read the Prof Alatas works (both son and the late prof), and Edward Said’s Orientalism, it is easy to see that we have been living in the shadows of the West far too long that it becomes a self fulfiling prophecy – we think we are ‘lazy’, and ‘unfortunate’ because they dominate thoughts and conception of self.
I think not only us have been ‘living in the shadows of the West’ … colonization stretches from India to the far reaches of West Indies.
But that period is over, and the Malays as of now presently, the dilemma they’re facing is, we are ‘living in the shadows of the cheenas’. nepotism at it’s best
Nothing against the cheenas but when i at uni or work, i feel so a minority, with no saying in most of my work/job scope compared to other ethnicity
just my opinion, feel free to flame me … :-p
I think we are living in our own shadows.
I have heard Malays, or another other ‘races’ blame everyone else and everything else when they/we do not go out there and make opportunities.
I do not believe in this racial divide or whatever we have been indoctrinated to believe. Choosing to blame race.
This concept called race is not biological. It is a human construct , and by that it is plausible to erase race out from human dictionary if and only if everyone makes a conscious effort to understand and accept that race is just a figment of one’s imagination.
Maybe i sound utopic or dystopic, either ways goes. Nevertheless, race has far fetching consequences in one’s lives. There is just no escaping race.
Imagine that. A human construct becomes a drive on its own.
Very destructive, human minds are.
Sadly, it starts at home.
Some of us come from families who pressure their kids to do well in school, but have no idea how to support them intricately in that sense. Even worse, they still do put familial duties over and above anithin academic.
Others come from families who pressure their kids to quickly “study as much as u can” then go find a job and support e parentals.
Some come from families who’d rather write in to teachers tellin their kids are down with fever.
Others come from families whose parents hide all their hardship but their smart kids feel it in the end and guilt strikes them like no other.
And talk abt inter-racial tensions, sumtimes i feel bad myself.
I duno, if bein able to see e bigger picture helps to frame it better, why cant we(they) do it? I’m tryin to b neutral here, but i think i’m failin. Hehz.
i think it’s as simple as that … start at the home
yes it’s true what you mentioned that each Malay parents has differing expectation and values for their children, and thats a rather sticky situation to counter …
but overall if each and single malay home, start with the parents to oversees their child education, i mean getting to know what they’re learning, calls to the teacher, knowing who they’re mixing around, etc … i think it’s a totally different story now. I mean to pressure vs to encourage is 2 different thing
if a child is being forced to study, i think in the end he/she will end up hating the education despite excelling. some might rebel being the teen phase we all go through … i would rather the parents instill the values of wanting to ‘learn’ by themselves as once we get old with our parents ‘gone’, the values will still be with us. its an ever learning process that never ends
i think the younger generation of malays such as you are aware of this and i think it’s a good start. at least you know where your child will head next or your expectation
no need to feel bad about inter-racial tensions. its there and a fact, nothing can ease it or make it disappear. just know that you’re learn & recognize such issues, resolve the conflict, and reduce the prejudice. Easier said than done eh. hahaha
u did not consider those in ite or in private inst.
i dont know how much is ur friend’s household income. but from what i understand, financial assistance scheme is only eligible for families whose total income is less than 2000? or maybe higher, but not more than 3000. most of our malays are from middle income families who’s total income is more than 3000 but lesser than 4000. most of us live in a 4 room apartment, has 3 kids or more. maybe 2, but hardly 1. in singapore, standard of living is steadily growing. so is the education fees. and yet, the criteria of a financial aid is still the same. there’s not many scholarships to go around these days. to be eligible for one, u need to be excellent academically. even if our malays can do it, how many will still be stuck in the dumps?
they want to go further, but opportunities are not there.
also, support from the family is impt too. if parents are not concern about their kid’s studies, did not have the initiative to engage their kids for tuition classes, did not instill responsibility towards their studies…. then of course, it very much explains the stats u see.
I suggest we learn from our non-malay peers. they come from the same generation as us too. and yet they’re very hardworking. their parents spent big money investing on their kids’ education. why cant our malays see that?
I think right uncle sha, if we want to abolish the free education for malays, it wont make a big difference. the mentality did not start from having free education. it came from home, from the people we mix with.
at least with the free education, it gives us malays something to hold on to. without it, we totally have nothing.
there was no statistics for ite/private school my dear
well he’s from a low income family and he’s qualified for any bursary or financial aid if he applies. i think his mind is set to quit already. for one, i think he feel ‘pressured’. the parents are relying on him for $$ to support but then again if he quit, its a waste. he could have earned more with that certificate when graduated. but at the moment, the family is pressed for money. its rather complicated, haiz. i did advise like visit MP, seek loans, etc, but he has yet to seek that avenue .. dunno la
i think most scholarship for us malays are out of reach, i mean the really good ones are mostly taken up by the non malays. i’m not saying its impossible to get one, but most of the time when i see a scholarship being offered in my mail, i’ll pass knowing that some genius PRC or india student who academically more gifted than me will get it. maybe its just me. for them they’ve far less responsibilities such as part-time work, my running. if i were to focus just on academic, i’ll go crazy
i think the younger generation of malay parents are more aware that education is the way ‘out’ of this ‘shithole’. haha. so there you go, hope the stats improve as the year progress eh
teeshah: But don’t you think that perhaps it’s when we don’t have something to hold on to that things will be put into perspective?
And only then will people ‘wake up’ and start fighting for their own futures?
Of course the risk is that the community would instead go, “Wah! We are so marginalised.” and still carry on this self-defeating trend…
So Ridz, what do u suggest? abolish such benefits? What makes u think it would do any good?
Well, true..it might not do much good…but i think having it perpetuates the problem. I personally feel that issues should be tackled uniformly across the board and that ethnic-related considerations should be strictly for statistical studies.
Policies that ‘help’ a specific race only serves to divide. Plus, free education for the malays. How fair is it when you put a “poor Indian” who cannot afford an education next to a “poor Malay who cannot afford but has this policy helping him”?
On another note, this free education could in fact perpetuate a false sense of security that we, simply by virtue of our heritage, don’t have to fight hard to earn a place in society. This, I think, results in many of us sitting back and saying that change is always someone else’s job. ( Although this is also a very Singaporean problem )
I’m a proponent of people not being sheltered because in the long run they’ll learn to stand on their own two feet…even if it means that there will be a transition period where there will be…losses.
I’m not happy with people who dont take advantage of the opportunities given to enbetter themselves.
i think we call that jual mahal
I feel proud to be one of the few malays in a local university but at the same time I feel very much embarrased by some of the mentality Malay university undergraduates and even graduates have. A fren of mine blatantly told me str8 to my face she didnt want to be known as a Malay. Many others simply refuse to converse in Malay even to their own peeps. While I haf to admit dat I am one of those who are really horrendous speaking in Malay (a very much ashamed ‘kentang’), I will never denounce my race like some of these people in my school and neither will I refuse to ‘cakap Melayu’ because its ‘not cool’.
That said however I am very much disgusted by the general malaise amongst Malays in Singapore and even across the causeway (and down south too). So what if we are the indigenous race? And so what we haf ‘discounted’ rates for education?
I can’t help but to wonder if there is anything out there that scientifically proves that Malays are genetically ‘weak’ or simply put ‘lazy’.
That’s abit extreme to denounce you’re not a melayu. Apa seh. Traumatized and ashamed to be one eh? Hmm I wonder what makes a person to resort to such measures.
Yeah I do too find myself conversing in English, but I do try to add in that Bahasa in the mix too.
I think it’s a mindset thingie … once we overcome that, I think the mentality onwards ‘the sky the limits’
Hi Sha,
Good article.
I’m Chinese, and I play soccer with my Malay friends every Sunday.
Last week, I had a discuss with my Malay friends and we were discussing this same topic!
I believe that the Malays are lagging behind due to the ‘mentality’ problem like you pointed out. There is simply not much drive to strive for the top. I wish we can help each other out more, and certainly there is a lot of room for improvement.
Some of my Malay friends will say that there is already discrimination out there, so why bother working so hard? Yes it is true that there is, to a certain extend. I won’t deny that. Still, that is not an excuse.
I do sincerely hope the situation will take a turn for the better. On the bright side, the statistics now are far better than before, and the only way now is up, not down.
Cheers,
Jag
Eh can join your soccer game, i itching to play soccer. i can play any role, fit and fast! haha
yeah i think the malays a slightly better … we can only hope for the best right.
yeah keep that positive mindset!!
Hi Sha,
Sure you can join us! You live in the East? We play every Sunday at a basketball court behind TPJC. After that we will go makan and chit chat.
If you want to follow up, you can email me.
Anyway I’ve to add that some Malays are quite on the ball though. In fact, I will be collaborating with one on a business project. The race factor is elementary. What’s most important are the mindset and drive.
Cheers,
Jag
i stay in the west. I’ll inform you if u wanna play soccer. dun be surprised i suck at soccer, haha. very da rusty now
ahh good to know some malays are on the ball! all the best in ur business. look fwd to more good stuff from ur site
Hi Sha,
I’m quite fortunate to have finally found a partner that has skills that complement mine. For too long, I’ve been on my own, and now I’m so glad to have someone to plan and strategize with. The fact that he is a Malay and I’m Chinese doesn’t come into the equation at all. Maybe we can be poster boys for racial harmony in future. :)
I read your comments about being under the shadow of ‘cheenas’. Please don’t feel that way. To be honest, if you want to compare, the Chinese in Malaysia and Indonesia have it worse, in terms of discrimination. Even some of my Malay friends acknowledged that. It is through sheer hard work and determination that they managed to build up some economic clout which serves as a protection barrier for them. Seriously I don’t see why the Malays here can’t do the same.
Anyway it’s not really nice talking about race, because it is a sensitive topic, and it’s like opening a can of worms. Remember the May 98 riots in Indonesia? I have a friend whose relatives were killed and property burnt down. He was so filled with hatred. Racial issue is just a very touchy subject lah!
With that said, Malays can be enterprising and my partner is definitely the best proof of that.
Anyway good luck to your exams.
Cheers,
Jag
hello everyone,
I have been to many blog sites with regards to the malay dilemas,and the probelms the malay community facing.but today i am going to touch something even vital,crucial for
we,singaporeans to ensure survival politically,socially,economically,historitically and u name
it.
have patience with me,and i try to say something good, something advantage about us, as a banded singaporean.but b4 taht……….
Waht happen is this,the malays are actually ordinary people like u and mi,but historical background and their own political baggage of the past has never changed them for the last few hundred years – this is waht i think.
the ‘nusantara’ as to waht we know is their only hope for the future.the reason for this,they have fought many wars,big and small to defend on their mother land,called ‘nusantara’ – this is waht we know in history taht we have learned.
the malays are also a people of many talent in critical and creative thinking until the 60′s where,the political landscape of the ‘nusantara’ has changed to negetivity towards the malays – now this is waht I call the ‘second wave of beating’.
it is only by this transitional that,the malays began to realise of their loss in the past must be retain again by them eventually, in the name of ‘education’ and taht said by educating, the malays can excel,prosper and be intelligent again.
soon now we can see,malays are beginning to pick up in education to ensure progress.
now, with some help from the other races,mps’,ngos’ perhaps, the ‘work in progress’ can even be achieve in the shortest possible time.
i would say taht,the ‘affirmative’ actions taht we are doing,should be able to help them excel in many cases and cases by cases senarios.
i can see taht some of us and even me are saying(me ,many years ago i think like taht), why make use of ‘help’ – a dirty word to render ‘tongkat’ for them.
the constitution has outlined and even provisioned for the free education for the ingenious malays.
i can see many of our friends here,agreed taht we need to assist the malays for further education to ensure good numbers are on their ‘cards’
in fact i don’t see it is a big probelm for the malays to acheive in education.waht’s more our local chinese singaporean and local indian singaporean are around to assist them in every way possible.taht going to be proud moments for singapore.
try ponder this’why think malays are like taht,try work-out together and be banded together
and eventually be branded world class together’ — the catch is this, it is only our small probelm of the our malays.now,if we banded together, we can even explore and prosper in the economies of the INDIA,CHINA,THE NUSANTARA AND ALSO THE EU, because we have people speaking TAMIL,MANDARIN,ARABIC AND MALAY,AND ALSO ENGLISH.HENCE THIS CO-OPERATION HAS BEEN MISSING FOR SOME TIME NOW BUT IT CAN BE RETAIN AGAIN.
take advantage of our differences.opportunity does not come many times.taht’s waht i want to say to u all and share our greatest moment to come with a banded singaporeans.
are you history major?
i do agree plenty of our historical cultures and adat are becomingly a forgotten institution by our youth. should we be alarmed. yes we should
but it’s not a lost battle, i’ve seen and heard of programs and effort to actually reinforce and generate back that interest. it’s all about getting through the new age youth these days on their level without compromising what we’re trying to teach
yup malay are up and coming people. we in large lack self belief, and i feel we should more focused on that!
this is very good for a start,to venture more to be become global malays within our singapore’s ‘ tucung saji’.
to tandem multiply effect,we malays, in fact all malays must be one mentality on the basis of improving banggsa kita until termajunya kita — remember, the name of the game is help each other malays as possible as we can, no matter at waht cost going to incure.
the like of your last comment, is something kita mesi warisi.kita adalah org.2 yang beradaap dulu,baru ada penggikut selepas itu,but mesti ‘setia’ with waht we want to do.kalau tak ada ‘kesetiaan’ maka tak terlaksana apa jua pun.
r&d of many kinds telah subur menyeri with our kesedaran.namun,we must not forget our past of cemerlangan.
i tell u guys, the secret to unveil is, malays’ strong point on pursuing kecemerlangan in waht ever we nak, the very meaning is our ‘ kekuatan and our kelemahan’ and rumuskan ia!
percayalah kawan2,this is the thing kita kena cari jalan huraian.
is there definite, taht malays are up and coming.the game of ‘kejar mengejar’ banggsa lain is sehat and ever advantage to the malays,kerana kita are a banggsa ‘marathon’ because we are muslims and malays, and even ‘mak salleh’ tak punyai this substance.believe me.
in this case, we are not the one who are ‘kena kejar’,but it is the lain banggsa yang kena pursuit.yes,kita melayu is always on advantage if we are still in this part of ‘nusantara’.every
one knows taht.so take this as a good start for every effort to be the ‘best’.
tentang ‘banded singaporean’,lagi banyak advantage.lain banggsa have ‘fear’ on this isu.
fikir2lah sejenak as waht it is.
bye and take care.
ok, thanks for the input dude
i was working in a boutique couple of months ago, and i told them i was waiting for sch to start. and they asked ” oh where? Ite or poly?” Seriously, i was taken aback..i wondered why do they have to question me in such a way straight to my face.. i figured malays are being stereotyped by other races and even by our own race. And when i told them i’m in NTU, they got startled and have a face of disbelief. goodness.. i guess we were too far to catch up that others have tendencies to think that we,malays dun excel in education.
hi5 … people aso gave me disbelief look that this bangla from uni! haha
i think ppl need to wake up their bloody idea .. melayu sudah maju
Assalamualaikum
I have to ‘wake up’ from my ‘sleep’.It has been 3 months that I pergi ‘rantau’ dunia melayu luar singapore.
Hidayah, you are not alone out there.Be strong on the belief for success.
Read what Uncle Sha have said and others too.They are penawar for you.
Remember that malays are not bangsa kena kejar, but bangsa yang mampu dengan pelbagai kecemerlangan untuk mereka kena kejar.
Study very very very hard and don’t give a ‘damn’ with bangsa perosak.They are actually coward to see you succeed.
Wassalam.
welcome back
hi uncle sha.
apa khabar?hope everything in order.
i, vary find, no problem.got to move and hit many trouble malay kids nowadays.
politically, semua not so good for us but the best shall prevail, if many like you.
socially, ok so so semua baik2 belaka, semua boleh gel.
economically, kita melayu boleh tahan and could well be better off dengan adanya banyak malay ngos tolong kita semua and also the affirmative action (malay rights) – free education.
and lastly, don’t forget melayu boleh and serba boleh (apa yang positif)
keep it up you guys.
mind you, you look like bangla but hati mesti melayu and for the malays.
don’t get me wrong, i no ultra malay, but willing to help malays, for we malays have suffered a lot, worse than our grand dad.
bye and wassalam.
Bro, the stats that you retrieved is an eye opener.
Back in the 80s’ the same did cross my mind on “Should we Malays rally and call for that free education law to be abolished?” The thinking came about while reading local papers on the issues of Malays ranging from security to employment to opportunities. If that trade off gives EQUAL opportunities in ALL fields than why not?
I don’t know if quotas system exist for the entry into our universities but if it does because of the existance of free education scheme than abolish it.
Assalamualaikum,
Just leave as status quo, we will never ever know what comes next.
Wassalam.