As the recalibration of Budget 2016 was announced yesterday, the dreams of thousands of expectant young Malaysians were shattered. These school-leavers had studied hard to attain their excellent results. They had sacrificed much time and money in hopes of the winning a government scholarship to pursue their ambitions to study in the best universities.
Unfortunately, at least 2,436 students would lose their opportunities as the government scales down the JPA scholarship programmes by 20 to 60 per cent.
In his speech yesterday, Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Najib Razak rather misleadingly declared that the government “had agreed to continue four JPA scholarship programmes for 2016,” namely, the National Scholarship Programme (Program Biasiswa Nasional), the Special Engineering Programme to Japan, Korea, Germany and France, the Bursary Programme and the First Degree Programme (Program Ijazah Pertama Dalam Negara).
While it is true that the four programmes have not been shelved, the Prime Minister had failed to mention that they would all be experiencing significant cuts compared to last year, as detailed in the table below.
| Programme | 2016 | 2015 | Difference |
| Program Biasiswa Nasional | 20 | 50 | -60% |
| Program Khas Kejuruteraan | 200 | 300 | -33% |
| Program Lepasan Bursary | 744 | 1,000 | -25% |
| Biasiswa Ijazah Pertama Dalam Negara | 8,000 | 10,050 | -20% |
| Total | 8,964 | 11,400 | -21% |
Table: Number of JPA scholarships for 2016 and 2015.
The decision to reduce the intake of all four JPA scholarship programmes by 20 to 60 per cent is strongly condemned, as the DAP maintains that cuts should come from elsewhere. Instead of sacrificing the future of our children, there are plenty of other unnecessary programmes that could be trimmed or even abolished, such as the Department of Special Affairs, the National Civics Bureau (BTN), TalentCorp and even the National Service Training Programme.
In fact, the Pakatan Harapan Alternative Budget 2016 estimates that savings of around RM30 billion or slightly more than 10 per cent of the Federal Budget could be achieved simply by introducing more transparent procurement policies such as open competitive tenders, dismantling of uncompetitive monopolies and reducing rent-seeking practices.
Furthermore, Malaysians cannot accept such huge cuts for educational opportunities when corruption, leakages and financial scandals abound. Already, tens of billions of ringgit have been flushed down the drain through major scandals such as 1MDB, the Port Klang Free Zone and the Bank Negara Forex scandal, to name a few. According to financial watchdog Global Financial Integrity’s latest report published last month, Malaysia lost a total of USD48.25 billion in 2013 alone through illegal capital outflows stemming from tax evasion, crime, corruption, and other illicit activities.
When RM500 million can be paid out as “commission” for the purchase of submarines and RM250 million in soft loans can be given to people with no experience but plenty of connections, it is nothing short of a travesty that more than 2,000 young, hard-working Malaysians with great potential will be denied opportunities to further their studies.