I refer to the letter by Disgusted ('No level-playing field in varsity entrance').

If the writer sincerely believes the playing field between the matriculation examination vis-a-vis the STPM examination is not level and that the so-called new meritocracy attempt is but a sham, why flog a dead horse of trying to urge a change of government policies for more non-bumiputera students intake into local tertiary institutions?

Why not try private colleges or other ways? I know private college fees may be beyond reach of many from those with economic disadvantaged backgrounds. There are however educational grants, scholarship and study loans from various financial institutions and organisations for those who seek these out. Worse come to worse, work for a stint, save some money to continue the studies.

This self-reliant attitude would place one in better stead - that's real education - and non-bumiputera students should not grouse and lament that they are denied access to subsidies and handouts into the very educational institutions that they claim are not based on meritocracy standards.

If the writer were really correct that there is no genuine desire to reintroduce meritocracy into tertiary education, the following will hold true as mitigating factors.

Whilst it may not tax your pockets to gain entry into local institutions, there is however no point to do so. An education from institutions not structured around meritocracy but other extraneous criteria will do little to liberate the mind but much more to stultify it.

The diplomas and degrees conferred from such institutions have lost and will gradually lose some more their accreditation both within as well as outside the country. In such an educational milieu, the same brush will tarnish the good and excellent graduating from such institutions as those mediocre or below average.

Imagine 20 years ago, a brilliant scholar gained admission to a local university and graduated top class. Twenty years of non-meritocracy under BN's affirmative re-engineering programme has caused serious accreditation problem as that local university fell in ranking and prestige due to suspicions of its standards, real or imagined.

Now another (say for example) 20 of shift in curriculum of such a local university from secular to religious (should hypothetically PAS wins the election), the degree and the image that goes with it is done for!

Ask this question: Is it fair for me, for example, who had graduated top from a local university of high standing 28 years ago before the launch of NEP to be now assessed and adjudged condescendingly by the market and those who do not know better the situation (then) based only on the perceived standards of non-meritocracy of this same local university at present? Wouldn't the bad situation get worse when the standards of non-meritocracy in my local university are superseded and replaced by standards of theocracy (when PAS takes power) in another 10 years time?

The young people of today look to a tertiary education as an investment for the future. Now whether one invests in purchase of a house or a stock or a university degree, the capital of each of these must appreciate over time - not deteriorate - or else one is arguably better off not making the investment in the first instance.

Viewed from these perspectives, the writer ought not to feel so "disgusted". You cannot really suffer and should not lament about a deprivation of something, which either inflict incalculable image problem unto you over the long run or if you had prescience, you do not deem it worth having in the first instance.