I welcome the news that the government is cutting down on scholarships as was reported yesterday in Malaysiakini .

It is still unclear what is being suspended, stopped or whatnot, but I have always been a proponent of doing away with scholarships as it is extremely discriminatory and unfair on those students who don’t receive it. Furthermore, it is a wanton waste of limited money on a few who are arbitrarily selected without due process for fairness.

Nothing in Malaysia is more discriminatory then the awarding of scholarships - which is basically a lottery based on who you are and who you know, it’s as simple as that.

Say we take the race issue out, if every person with five or six ‘A’s - or whatever the top marks these days are - gets a scholarship, then it is acceptable... but it is not, right? Even if we were to say that scholarships are for one race only.

Do all those from that race get scholarships if their results are identical? Isn’t this against the federal constitution, which prohibits discrimination unless it is specially allowed for or exempted?

Article 8 by clause (1) provides that all persons are equal before the law and entitled to its equal protection.

Clause (2) states: “Except as expressly authorised by this constitution, there shall be no discrimination against citizens on the grounds only of religion, race, descent, gender or place of birth in any law or in the appointment to any office or employment under a public authority or in the administration of any law relating to the acquisition, holding or disposition of property or the establishing or carrying on of any trade, business, profession, vocation or employment.”

Every year it is a repeat of previous songs and dances. Similar result-holders get different replies to their application.

It is not only the government that directly gives, many statutory bodies, government-linked companies (GLCs), government-linked investment companies (GLICs) and government-owned entities dish out scholarships to all and sundry. These monies should be channelled to government consolidated funds and used for the purpose of all the rakyat, not a select few.

I don’t have empirical evidence, but I am sure many of us would know of someone who has received a scholarship - and we wonder why on earth did that person get a scholarship when their parents flash money around on cars and handbags like it is going out of fashion, whilst the kids fill their Facebook and Instagram accounts with their holiday exploits?

I know someone who was overseas on a scholarship, and their dad had bought them a Mercedes S class to whizz around. Deserved?

All scholarships by the government, government agencies and related entities should be scrapped and replaced with loans which students have to pay back - just like many do under the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN).

What is so special that some must be given scholarships and some not? My opposition towards scholarships is mainly targeted to those given for overseas-bound students, as it can fund many local students as compared to one being sent overseas.

It is ridiculous to suggest that education will suffer if scholarships are not offered. However, it is also pointless if these saved funds are then squandered on the operational cost of salary and supply cost of the ever-burgeoning civil service where new companies, bodies or councils are formed every month (or even weekly). That is no good either.

Maybe I am being sour grapes, as I never received any scholarship and neither did any of my siblings. Guess what, though? We all finished our education just fine and repaid all the study loans we took. Nothing happened to any of us, we didn’t drop out or turn into village bumpkins.

What we need to fight for is that every ringgit revenue collected by the government is used extremely carefully, like it is our own hard-earned money.

Let each and every Malaysian student learn to cope on loans and pay back once they graduate - that is the fairest result of all, not billions on scholarships for a select few.