Speech (2) by Lim Kit Siang at the DAP Selangor-USJ East Branch Chinese New Year Dinner at the Summit Subang USJ on Saturday, 13^th March 2010 at 10 pm: 

The 200 top SPM students should all be given full pre-university and university scholarships to usher in a new era of meritocracy

Yesterday, the Education Ministry released the Top 10 students and the Top 10 Schools for Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) 2009 – with only two students and three schools coming from the 20 High Performance Schools announced by the Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in January this year.

But why just announce the Top 10 students and the Top 10 Schools for last year’s SPM?

I call on Muhyiddin, who is also Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Human Resources, to announce the top 200 students for SPM last year and the Top 100 Schools for SPM 2009 as well.

It will be interesting to know whether all High Performance Schools announced by Muhyiddin come within the Top 100 Schools for SPM 2009.

However, what is more important is that the government should usher a new era of meritocracy by awarding full scholarships for both pre-university and university, whether local or foreign, studies to the top 200 top SPM students, regardless of race, religion or region.

This will be a critical test whether there is going to be any major Government Transformation Programme so that the New Economic Model which the country has been promised will truly create an innovative, creative and dynamic economy by giving top priority to Malaysian human resources, regardless of race, religion or region – ending the brain drain of Malaysia’s best and brightest in each generation to benefit other countries instead of our own.

This will also be a test whether the government is really sincere about its 1Malaysia slogan and concept.

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary Leader & MP for Ipoh Timor