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Najib's misplaced priorities on JPA scholarships
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YOURSAY | ‘And yet you want to spend RM100m to send another man for a space holiday.'

'Cash for jets but not for scholarships?'

Dont Just Talk: Prime Minister Najib Razak can afford to fly the government's VVIP jet overseas, allegedly spend millions using a platinum card, have a bloated number of ministers and deputy ministers - with eight useless ministers without official portfolios in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) - but cannot afford to give scholarships to bright, deserving Malaysian students.

His lopsided priorities are beyond our understanding.

Vijay47: Maritime tradition holds that the captain be the last one to abandon a sinking ship, or perhaps in an act of honour, go down with it.

The Japanese of course have their seppuku. It is not suggested Najib acquire a tanto, the dagger used in the bushido ritual, but emulating it; he could start by trimming the obscene fat in his own house.

I of course refer to his ministerial home and not his domestic baggage, though that wouldn't hurt either.

The size of the PMO has reached its present state only because it is meant to reward party members, to keep them within the stable.

Incidentally, what are special envoys former MIC president S Samy Vellu and former MCA president Ong Ka Ting doing that the ambassadors to India and China respectively cannot do?

And now we have Najib cutting the education budget. How will he follow this? By cutting medical services?

One really foul area that should be destroyed is the granting of APs (approved permits), a totally offensive policy where 'free money' is given to a favoured lot. Hundreds of millions can be saved here.

Besides, those who lose the APs can always move into Mara Digital Mall.

Shithappens: Japan Railways has been running a train for only one passenger for the past three years.

The student is the only passenger to travel in the train and Japan Railways has made the decision to run the train only for her.

Japan Railways even rescheduled the train according to her school timings. The girl is supposedly going to graduate this March, after which the train service will be shut down permanently.

People are saluting the Japan government for keeping education as a top priority and posting comments in Facebook, which shows the CCTV footage, such as, "Why should I not want to die for a country like this, when the government is ready to go an extra mile just for me.

"This is the meaning of good governance penetrating right to the grassroots level. Every citizen matters. No child is left behind!"

Democrat: You want to spend RM100 million to send another man for a space holiday. And yet you do not value the cream of our students.

You pay ministers who had lost in the elections by re-employing them as advisers and pay them millions, you appoint ministers in your department just to strengthen yourself politically. You, Mr PM, are committing a big sin.

Pemerhati: The standard of Malaysia’s universities has been steadily declining over the years. One of the reasons is that the universities do not recruit quality teachers and they do not admit the best students.

The authorities should make a few universities like say Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) the centres of excellence by taking in students strictly on merit and by removing the many ‘kangkung’ lecturers and professors and replacing them with quality teachers from Malaysia and from abroad.

The brightest students should be taught in these centres of excellence and not sent overseas. This will not only save a lot of foreign exchange but will ensure that the high quality local talent remains in the country.

The present policy of sending the best students overseas results in a lot of students not returning to the country after graduation. That means the country loses not only high quality talent but also the large amount of money that was spent on them.

Telestai: Despite the poor governance of the present administration, which is increasingly apparent, I wonder if the Malays will ever wake up to the reality that Umno is hopeless.

Yes, they have cash for jets and a bloated cabinet complete with advisers and consultants in tow, but no money for the poor rakyat.

As I've always said, you get the government you vote for. A resource-rich country getting into financial trouble, while a resource-starved neighbour is flourishing. Go figure.

Apapunboleh: Singapore will say "thank you" to Malaysia while offering scholarships to these bright ones.


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