Like most FEER journalists, Barr has NOT been honest in his article. He accused Singapore for NOT awarding the President scholarship to the Malays and therefore Meritocracy in Singapore is a charade. As proof, he pointed out that NO Malay(except one) was awarded the Presidents scholarship over the years.
One the surface, it seem that the award was biased against the Malay Singaporean. The shallow-minded would jump to agree with him.
Is the award NOT based on merit ? Let's see.
The award of the President scholarship is based on the A level exam results (conducted by GCE-Cambridge exam board). To qualify, one must score an A1 for all the 4 P subjects and the 4 S papers plus General Paper.
However, students who scored 9 A1s always outnumber the places for scholarship. Points are given to straight A1 students for servicing as students leaders....eg Head Prefect, head of uniform groups, editor of school magazine, head of student organisationswelfare body ....and for students who won honours for school, ...eg School teams who won state compebreastions, in Chess, national inter-school debates, ......
The Wisdom of Ptahhotep 2,300 BCThe Wisdom of Ptahhotep 2,300 BC The Ancient Egyptians engaged in construction projects on a mbuttive scale unmatched by any society since. The Chief Justice Follow...
Over the years, Malay students were NOT able to achieve these minimum requirements.....to be the best, based on these merits on scholastic and leadership achievements.
These yardsticks, par excellence A level exam results, proven leadership abilities and talents are colour blind, race blind and are merit based.
Barr accusation is therefore flawed.
His article in FEER is controversial and timely. It brings up a subjects that is close to the hearts of many who harbours thoughts that Malays are marginalised in Singapore. It force Malays and non Malays to examine his accusation in depth.....and the flaws in his arguments. His lies are exposed and destroyed once and for all.
The politics in Singapore may be not perfect, with PAP dominance, but Meritocracy shine as the pillar of a social system that brought Singaporeans a good life, social harmony and huge economic success a first world standard of living. It is far better than the US style democracy (which brought ruins to East Timor, Afghanistan, Iraqi, many new African states).
