Not until I read the papers the other day, did I realise that Chinese Malaysians have some sort of a hidden craving to study pharmacy, even though they may have received good enough grades to study, say, medicine.

As reported , a total of 922 (or 52 %) Chinese Malaysian students received the highest mark of 4.0 CGPA.

However, only 297 (or 38.1 %) of them were offered places to study medicine. On the contrary, 174 (or 64.4 %) Chinese Malaysian students gained admittance to study pharmacy at our local varsities!

Strange, how it never occurred to me that Chinese Malaysians, in our competitive, merit-based world would rather be pharmacologists than doctors.

For all this, I think we all should thank and congratulate the higher education department director, the brilliant Dr Hassan Said for devising the most innovative evaluation and selection system that spots and accentuates predilections hitherto unknown or unrealised.

Bravo!