Media Statement by Yeo Bee Yin, State Assemblywoman for
Damansara Utama on Saturday 27 February 2016.
We call upon Putrajaya
to review JPA’s unjustifiable “convertible-loan” scholarship policy
immediately.
Recently JPA has dropped another bombshell on its scholarship
offer, of which all the scholarships it offers from 2016 will be in the form of
convertible loan[1]. Upon
completion of their studies, JPA scholars are mandated to work in public
sector. If they choose to work in government-linked-companies (GLCs) or private
sector, they will have to pay back 50% or 100% of the scholarship amount
respectively.
Such policy is actually not an entirely new concept. Many JPA
or govenrment scholars in the past have been made to sign the contracts that
necessitate them to work in public sector if they are offered a job within a
period of time after their study, failing which they are required to pay back
the scholarship amount. In any case, the recently announced JPA “convertible
loan” policy is unjustifiable and should be reviewed immediately.
Firstly, it is mind-boggling to see that another government
agency, Talent Corp, is doing the reverse. Its Scholarship Talent Attraction
and Retention (STAR) program helps government scholars to serve their
scholarship bond with leading private sector companies (instead of public
sector) “as a way of contributing back to the nation.”[2]
According to Talent Corp website, there are a total of 1,681 STAR private/GLC employers[3]. Why on one hand, JPA makes it compulsory for the
scholars to serve their bond in public sector and on another hand Talent Corp
helps them to “escape” from it by connecting them to jobs in GLCs and private
sector? Why the double work? Why wasting tax payers monies for Talent Corp to
run STAR when what JPA can do is to allow the scholars to serve their bonds
anywhere in Malaysia?
Secondly, the terms and conditions of the “convertible loan”
is unjustifiable as it may lead to using tax-payers monies to reward
under-performers. Under such policy, a student with CGPA 2.8, who can’t get a
job in private sector but can only wait for public sector job, can get the
scholarship for free, while a highly competent student with CGPA 3.8, who is hired
by a multi-national company through many rounds of competitive interviews, will
be forced to pay back the scholarship amount in full. If “convertible loan” is unavoidable, then
the payback amount must be performance-based (academic and non-academic) and
not based on in which sphere the scholars choose to work– public sector, GLCs
or private sector, as long as they are in Malaysia.
Thirdly, I believe that this policy that forces all the top
brains to work for the government does not best serve our national economic
agenda. I believe that the role of private sector is equally if not more
important than the public sector in driving the nation’s economy. To move out
from the middle-income trap, Malaysia economy needs to change quickly to
knowledge-intensive and innovation-led economy. This is impossible when we have
a major scholarship policy that penalizes our top brains for getting involved
in private sector and entreprenurial venture. Under such system, we may force a
talented JPA scholar, who has just done a ground-breaking research that can be commercialized
through highly potential start-up, to pay back its scholarship because he/she
starts a business instead of working for the government! This is completely
illogical.
In order for Malaysia to be competitive in the international
arena, we urgently need to manage our talents better. With that, we call upon
Putrajaya to review its unjustifiable JPA scholarship policy to ensure that
Malaysian talents are given the opportunities to reach their full potentials on
this land in order to best serve our country.
