'SLAB'ed in the face

This letter in Malaysiakini caught my eye today. The issue highlighted is the implementation of the Skim Latihan Akademik Bumiputera (SLAB) in regards to the medical profession. The views of this person is not unique. Check out related pots here and here. We've discussed SLAB in this blog here and here as well. The main issue of contention here is that this scheme is unfair and rewards people who are not as qualified.

When I did a google blog search on this issue, I came across a view from the 'other side', so to speak and I want to share it our readers. This post , written after the recently concluded elections, argues that Malays in Malaysia who are supporters of PAS and PKR have benefited from the NEP in many aspects, whether they were connected to UMNO or not. These include entry into institutes of higher education, scholarships for overseas education and yes, the SLAB scheme.

His views are, in my opinion, factually correct. Many Malays have benefited from the NEP, regardless of whether they were BN supporters or not. Some BN supporters and leaders might have benefited in a more direct fashion (contracts and such) but many Malays, regardless of income, would have benefited from the many social policies enacted under the NEP.

What I found quite interesting is the fact that the author is this view from the 'other' side makes no mention of the costs associated with these kinds of policies which others have pointed out. For example, is there a sacrifice in quality as a result of sending less qualified Malays for some of these scholarships? Would Malaysia benefit more from having a more merit base system of apportioning these scholarships? These questions go unanswered in his post. Perhaps these are issues which he is not concerned about. As long as the Malays benefit disproportionately from these schemes, he is not concerned about the quality of these graduates.

A more refreshing view I found was this letter in Malaysiakini, written by a more progressive Malay. He argues that it would be ideal if Malaysia could move to a multi-racial society where all are considered equal but current circumstances prevent this from happening, at least for now. He thinks that a better solution would be a slow move towards more progressive and merit based policies while at the same time, preserving the rights of the Malays in the constitution.

I am sympathetic to this view even though I'm not sure how exactly something like this might be implemented. One possibility which I envision is the slow removal of quotas in schemes like SLAB such that it can converge to a more merit based system in a defined period of time. For example, instead of giving junior Malay doctors fast track to SLAB while more senior non Malay doctors need to fulfill 4 years of service before they are eligible, policymakers can slowly decrease the 4 years needed by non Malays to let's say 2 years and increase the experience requirement for Malay doctors to 2 years. And instead of having a 90 / 10 quota, this could be slowly reduced to one that was more proportionate to the population of doctors e.g. 60 / 40.

I don't have major problems with recognizing the rights of the Malays in our constitution. But at the same time, there should be greater flexibility in interpreting and determining how these rights are implemented, especially in the field of higher education, where quality and scholarship ability are more important than the race of a person.

In regards to these kinds of issues, I would phrase the question as such: Would you prefer to be operated on by a doctor who is more qualified or would you prefer to be operated on by a doctor who is of the same race as you but might be not as qualified? Or, would you prefer your children at the university to be taught by a professor who is more qualified or would you prefer your kids to be taught by a professor of the same race who is less qualified?

I hope that the answer is obvious to most rational people.