(Petaling Jaya, Sunday): The
Director of Higher Education Department, Professor Hassan Said should not forget
that he is a public servant and should drop his condescending attitude towards
the Malaysian public, in particular university students and their parents,
lecturers and the interested public, who want answers to many queries about the
merit-based university entry selection system, in particular the special formula
used to match the matriculation results and the STPM grades to put them under
one main list in order of merit.
Prof
Hassan told The Star that there was no reason to doubt the new selection system
as a detailed study by “experts” had been conducted before the selection
criteria was set.
It
is Hassan who is creating the condition for people to begin to have doubts about
the new selection system by his refusal to be fully forthcoming to explain the
details of the new selection system.
Hassan
claimed that the standards of the two systems are comparable and said: “The
formula and calculation are very technical and highly academic and if I were to
explain it now, the layman will not understand.”
This
is highly condescending, offensive
and unacceptable. Hassan seems to
forget that he is a public servant who owes a public duty to explain the special
formula used to match the matriculation results and the STPM grades for the
merit-based university entry selection system and he should not think that he
belongs to the chosen few in the
country who could understand the esoteric subject of the criteria used in the
special formula to match the two systems.
Or
is Hassan seriously suggesting that the “laymen” who constituted the Cabinet
also do not understand the special formula used to match the two examination
systems and they have given Hassan a blank cheque to decide on the formula to
match the two systems without understanding it?
Nobody
is casting doubts yet on the
integrity of the new selection
system, but Hassan’s obstinate refusal to be fully transparent about the
selection system is raising increasingly more questions and doubts about the
justice and merit of the new selection system itself.
Hassan
has procrastinated long enough and he should immediately give a full and
detailed explanation to the public on the new formula used to match the two
examinations to ensure that it is not comparing an apple with an orange,
identify who were the “experts”
responsible for this formula and all other pertinent information about the
university intake this year.
(12/5/2002)