Friday, May 26, 2006

Assumptions are not gonna get you anywhere

Hmm, I was a little surprised when I checked my blog just as I was leaving work this evening, and I saw the flood of comments on my tagboard. But I was astounded, at the level of incredulity that the taggers made themselves out to be. It certainly provided a good laugh, as I recounted to Sya and Yani about all the mistakes and assumptions you guys made in attacking me, and my brother.

I thought X Men was fantastic, minus the ending. Soooo super anticlimax. boo. Even the little ten second snippet after the credits finished rolling. I have a feeling there might be an X Men 4. Just a hunch. =) It seems to me that nobody can die in the show. You die also, can still come back to life somehow. I still don't get how Jean came back to life. haha.. Oh well.. *shrugs* Not like I'm that smart or anything right, so I probably can't figure it out? *glares at no one in particular*

Anyway, I had originally wanted to post up lotsa pictures today (sorry elly, but your pictures are gonna have to wait =(), but thanks to these irritating flies, there's something else I need to do first.

In my original post, never was my intention to slam Mendaki. I was slamming their staff. Having been in the education system for years, I very well know it is not anybody's right to demand that someone pay for your education. It's not a right, but a priviledge. That I understand, and I do not need you people to point that out to me.

I did not state in my post that I expected the bursary to be handed with open arms to my brother. If you had read my post CLEARLY, what I was upset about was how their staff treated my mom's queries when she called them to ask about why he got rejected. They immediately ASSUMED the reason for which he got rejected, before they even asked for his name. And you expect me to not get upset? You've got to be kidding me!

ALL of you who commented on my tagboard, (yes, even YOU far). All of you obviously seem to have never heard of the Special Malay Bursary. You automatically assume that it's just a normal bursary, just like any other bursaries that other organizations give out to the poor and needy. You should have done your research first, cos you've got it totally wrong.

I respect the fact that organizations should help the poor and needy through bursaries as I believe that everyone deserves a fair chance at educating and improving themselves. Never once did I state that they do not deserve a chance. NEVER. Especially in a country like ours, where the only way for you to carve your way forward is if you have a strong foundation in education.

I'm sure you would remember, that in the not-so-distant past, Malays enjoyed free education, even up til the tertiary level. However, thanks to a certain minister, all of those rights were abolished and now we Malays have to fork out our own money, just as the other races, to complete our tertiary education. I'm not saying here that what he did was wrong or right, but I'm just giving a little bit of background as to the need for this bursary.

As mentioned in my friend Yani's blog recently in February (she happens to be one of the recepients of this bursary too),

in light of the upcoming A level results (ok not a very welcoming opening line, i know.)
mendaki has released several scholarship application forms.
strangely though, i never received it when i was awaiting results. however, NOW they give it to me, so i shall pass it on. ok? :)

one of the scholarship-bursaries is very important. it is the special malay bursary.
i believe this is our right as the indigenous people. back then, we(malays) were promised free education, because this country was not able to grant us land(as they do for the indigenous people). this bursary pays full tuition fees, and on top of that, it gives a yearly living allowance of a considerable amount. however, we should never take without giving back. so there is a condition. each recipient has to complete approximately 1200 hours of community service. fret not, you have up to 5 years after graduation to do so. apart from this, there are no other strings attached.

ok so why am i putting this on my blog?
because two years back, it was rather difficult to obtain an application form for this bursary. it wasn't on the website, and if you go to mendaki and you ask for any tertiary tuition fee bursary, they'll simply hand you the tertiary tuition fee loan. which is NOT what we deserve as indigenous people. the only reason we got it was because we knew about it beforehand, and we had to specifically ask "can i have the special malay bursary form?", THEN they handed us the right form. :(
here's the link to that page.. in case you want "evidence" that I didn't cook it up by myself.

Not enough? Ok, here's the link to Mendaki's site then. Scroll down all the way for the information on this Special Malay Bursary.


SPECIAL MALAY BURSARY (SMB)

Introduction

Before 1995, the Public Service Commission (PSC) administered the Special Malay Bursary (SMB) for Malay students studying in the local tertiary institutions. In 1995, MENDAKI took over the administration of the SMB.

Eligibility Criteria

You are eligible to apply for the bursary if:

Ø You are a Malay Singapore Citizen and have been residing in Singapore for at least 5 years immediately before being admitted to the institution.

Ø You are enrolled in any of the following institutions:

a) Nanyang Polytechnic

b) Ngee Ann Polytechnic

c) Singapore Polytechnic

d) Temasek Polytechnic

e) Republic Polytechnic

f) Nanyang Technological University / National Institute of Education

g) National University of Singapore

h) Singapore Management University

Ø You have completed secondary education in a school in Singapore.

Ø You possess good results in the GCE 'O' or GCE 'A' level examinations.

Ø You participated actively in extra-curricular activities.

Condition

Successful applicant will be enlisted for "compulsory" volunteerism in MENDAKI or it's affiliates. Polytechnic students will need to volunteer for 76 days (or 532 hours) and for degree students for 176 days (or 1232 hours).

Applicants must apply personally at the institution and complete the admission procedures required by the university. Applicants must inform MENDAKI on the outcome of their application to the tertiary institutions. Interviews will be held after they have been accepted by the Polytechnic /University.

Application Procedure

Application is open in March/April each year. Application forms may be obtained at the reception counter of Yayasan MENDAKI, Wisma MENDAKI, 51 Kee Sun Avenue, Off Tay Lian Teck Road Singapore 457056.

Completed forms with supporting documents must be submitted to Yayasan MENDAKI within 20 days after the official announcement of GCE ?O?/?A? Level result. Incomplete forms will not be processed.

Notice the part near the bottom which says that interviews will be held after they have been accepted by the university? My brother received his rejection letter one week before he received the news that he got into Medicine. With his kind of results, he should have been shortlisted for the interviews before getting rejected. No news of interviews, and then suddenly a rejection letter. Smells fishy doesn't it? And if you're gonna say that other people did better than him, that's why he didn't get shortlisted, give me the list la! Of all those who did better than him. I doubt there are more than 10.

Notice also how the eligibility criteria does not mention anything about family income. Obviously, my family does not qualify for most normal bursaries in this case, as my dad earns more than the $3,000 cap they impose on most bursary applications. And we know fully well to steer clear of those bursaries. However, to say that we do not deserve this special malay bursary at all is outrageous.

Do any of you know how expensive it is to study Medicine in Singapore, even with the government's subsidy? We normal undergraduates pay roughly about $6,000 per Academic Year. Medicine undergraduates have to fork out about $17,010 per Academic Year. And their course is about 5-6 years long. Compute that yourself and you tell me how much more we have to pay now. Oh yeah, here's the link as well, you know, for evidence.

Oh yeah, which one of you was it who said my brother didn't even need to pay for his medicine school fees? Where did you get that idea from? If he did not need to pay for his school fees, why would we even be applying for the bursary? For fun is it? Wah, so fun ah let's all go apply for bursaries so that we can get money that we don't need! -_-

How undeserving is my family of this bursary huh? Huh?

I am still currenly in school right now, with still a year left to go and I am studying without any financial support from any organizations. My brother is about to start medical school this August, hence the hefty bills that are about to come. (Remember their costs are about 3 times that of a normal course) My youngest brother is currently in his O level year, which means that insyaallah, he will be in university in 4-5 years' time. Can you imagine the amount of finances we would need?

I wouldn't say that my family is well-off. Otherwise, I wouldn't be broke so often. We don't live in a mansion. We live in a normal HDB flat in Bukit Batok. While we do travel quite a bit for our holidays, I've never been to Europe or America. (I'm actually hoping and praying for a scholarship to come in to finance my exchange prog next semester.) Yes, add that exchange prog to my family's financial burdens please and you'll hopefully get a better picture that my family is not as well-off as you think.

And to whoever it was who said that I was in no position to call their staff incompetent as I have never experienced working life: Hello, I am currently working right now, doing my attachment at PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the 4 biggest accounting firms in the world. And I had also worked during last year's break, for about 2 and a half months at Alcatel. Trust me, I am pretty efficient, and incompetent would probably be the last word to describe how I work. Most of the time, I finish my tasks so fast (even though I try to drag them out as long as I can) that I'm left with nothing much to do. -_-

What the Mendaki people had to deal with was just administrative matters. If it was a simple glitch in their system, just apologise and we can all move on. They didn't have to assume and offend my mom and our whole family. If it was truly the case that my brother did not get the bursary because of certain reasons, then give us the reasons and we will all be satisfied. However, instead of providing us with the proper reasons, they immediately used assumptions to answer my mom's queries. And when their assumptions turned out to be false, they paiseh and don't know what to do.

Assumptions will not get us anywhere, just as how all of you have made assumptions in attacking my family. Make sure you get your facts right first, before throwing accusations at us. Even Islam teaches us not to make assumptions. Those who make assumptions and fail to question about the truth behind every fact will never prosper. Islam teaches us to think, and not to just accept facts as they are. Read up a little on your Islamic history, will u?

You say that I am degrading my own race. I was just stating the obvious. If you are gonna rely on assumptions all the time, there is no way you're going to prosper. And how can I be degrading my own race, when what I want is for the Malays to progress. There are only so few malays who gets into Medicine each year (average: 5). If nobody helps them, and they are not able to pay their tuition fees, won't there even be more of a shortage of Malay doctors around?

Most of these kids who end up studying Medicine are not rich. Most of them come from normal families, and live in HDB flats. So why is it that they have so much potential to contribute back to the society, yet you people are scorning at the thought of my brother getting help to fund his studies? Shouldn't you be encouraging Mendaki to help these students even more, as they have greater potential of contributing back to the society at a higher level? Aren't you degrading your own race by denying these students the opportunity to obtain financial help?

While I admit that I was wrong to have called them dickheads, I was in a moment of rage then. I was angry at the world, as Fad couldn't come back to Singapore, and I have not seen him for so long. Then this kind of thing happens, and of course all the words just come out. I may wear the tudung, but I'm not perfect. I don't set out to be an example to all Muslims, I'm just living my life as best as I can. I make mistakes and boy, so do all of you. *hohoho*

But, I have to say this. While you guys made so many mistakes in flaming me, (I can't be bothered to point them out, this entry would be never-ending otherwise) there was one thing that you got right. NUS never did teach me to appreciate that bursaries are a priviledge. Not that I don't appreciate that bursaries are a priviledge. (I do, I stated so at the start of this entry.) However, dear taggers, I never did go to NUS. So how exactly are they supposed to teach me that? *wonders* If you had read my profile properly before attacking me, I am an NTU Accountancy Undergraduate. *smirks*

I am certainly grateful that Allah has given my family all the blessings it has received all these years. Yet you accuse me of many things, such as being ungrateful and a shame to the Malay community. *sigh* I'm currently giving tuition as I want other Malay students to also see how easy some things are when you have someone to guide them. Is that being a shame to the community? I only criticised the Malaysian government and Mendaki's staff as they irked me, for reasons that I cannot fathom.

You guys are criticising me and throwing wild accusations at me when you do not know the whole story. I did not do anything to anger you, so why all the adrenaline. Now, I wonder who's more of a shame to the Malay community? Me? Or you? Able to spend so much time reading other peoples' blogs and make wild accusations, when that time could have been spent better-ing yourself. Just like the old Malay saying, jangan suka jaga tepi kain orang.

Hopefully I have made my case clear. I never asked for you to read my blog. I had stated clearly that if you do not want to read, you're welcomed to leave. So why get yourself so worked up? ;)

Posted by missymarsie at 11:45 PM

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