Malaysian Examinations Syndicate Backs Down

After being placed in the spotlight for 2 consecutive days as blogged here and here, it appears that the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate (MES) has agreed to back down from its requirement for examination students, both PMR and SPM, to indicate their religion on their registration slips.

It was reported in the Star yesterday that, MES director, Dr Salleh Hassan said that “it would no longer be the case next year for all public examinations… The public has spoken and we have responded.”

The MES also said for the record, that there was no “hidden agenda” in requesting a candidate to indicate their religion. I actually believe that MES is honest in the sense that they do not have any such “hidden agenda”. However, their need to revise policies purely for “administration” purposes, with no tangible or intangible benefits leaves much to be desired. Most of this “administrative” tasks are pretty harmless in that they only serve to perform minor irritations. But very often, some of these “administrative” policies are just poorly thought out and ends up backfiring on themselves.

I think we have too many civil servants attempting to justify their pay and worth by formulating these “administrative” pains. Well, at least in this case, the MES director was quick to “repent” and not dig an even deeper hole for himself.