How many in the past 10 years who have qualified as lawyers had their CLP marks hiked up?

Already there is suspicion that standards of academic degrees offered by foreign universities in conjunction with training given by local colleges are not that stringent to ensure that students are not discouraged from enrolling.

Then there is the CLP examination, the final step for admission to the Bar now mired in controversy. No wonder many professionals who qualify cannot even work around a problem that the professional discipline requires.

They ply a livelihood not through competence but - you guessed it - a street-wise massaging of a system that rewards according to personal connections (cronyism) and quid pro quo financial favours (bribing).

The CLP fiasco opens the Pandora box for a review of entry requirements to not only the law profession but rightly every other profession which cannot escape such peccadilloes prevalent in our culture.

In the first place CLP is an arbitrary gauge. Professionals should be measured by competence gained over the years from exposure of experience rather than hurdle of CLP. I agree that it should be scraped.

While one is grappling to understand why some results have been 'marked up', it is even more shocking to find that there were also some that were marked down causing candidates who otherwise would have passed to fail! What is the reason behind the move - is there a quota system and if so, what considerations are they based on?

When there is such a hurdle, those impacted, whether administrators or those administered, will seek to circumvent the system by methods gained from understanding the cultural milieu to which they are subject - that is by bribes and personal relationships.

Even the culprits can seek refuge from the values in such a system by pleading application of the quota system while filling up their own pockets or gaining unfair advantage over others. Failed students who before the review passed by their marks being marked up can now think of appealing to the government ministers!

This is shocking because when any one fails the first thing that will come to mind is that if he was a Malay, he could appeal to Umno ministers, if he was a Chinese to MCA's, or MIC's if he was an Indian.

The rest will now have to appeal to DAP and maybe PAS or Keadilan to raise their plight.

You could blame the government, the Bar Council, the Board, its directors or the CLP students but ultimately it is the system under which all draw the values on how to get things done - by bribery, and favours (financial or others), appeal to race or religion, or quotas or affiliation with political parties or patronage of well connected persons - anything but fairness, integrity and competence emanating from competition within a level playing field.

As sure as night will turn into day, so will we, under the burden of such cultural values, find ourselves, after a period of prosperity based on what the land would yield, marginalised and lagging behind in an increasingly tough global environment in which the capacity to compete, create and innovate and the resources of intellectual capital and competence will be the final arbiter of survival.