ASEAN Scholarship

I read an interesting a post from a fellow ASEAN scholar, Tony's blog regarding the ASEAN Scholarship. Like Kian Ming and Tony, I was also a product of ASEAN Scholarship. While almost everyone has high praise of the ASEAN Scholarship, I do not share such opinion.

I considered those 10 years in Singapore as "wasted years". I've spent 10 years in Singapore for my A-level, university and also working there. Wasted as in the sense that I could have achieved better elsewhere, but definitely not in Singapore. I'm now back in KL, achieving much much more, and happily enjoying a much better living standard as compared to my ASEAN ex-classmates in Singapore.

It is a personal choice to come back to Malaysia. To me, prejudice, discrimination, can be found everywhere. It's the same in Singapore too. Meritocracy in Singapore?? Maybe,... but if you're female, try applying for Medicine even if you scored full string of A's including Special Papers and see the results yourself.

While Tony has some interesting experience, I have a completely different experience. I was put into the top class in TJC. My experience was that while all of my Singaporean classmates were very good at regurgitating what they memorized from the textbooks, they were completely lack of general knowledge outside Singapore. They were also completely lack of analytical mindset. They were more like regurgitating machine brainwashed by PAP machineries. I still remember my GP teacher asking about the junta in Burma, and no one even knew where Burma (or Myanmar as it's known now) is located.

And I find most of them most of them very childish for their age (the ASEAN scholars are at least one year older, this could contribute to the maturity as compared to Singaporeans). Most of my friends in Malaysia at that time were already talking on investment and business, while my Singaporean classmates were still behaving like Form 3, young pampered students (eg. sitting on the floor singing like children is one favorite activity).

Yes, Singapore indeed gave me a different perspective, and that perspective is that Singapore's education is all hype and nothing big deal. It's a big factory good at churning out rote learners lacking in deep analytical mindset. Malaysia is not that bad after all -- more choices of public and private tertiary education institutions, and which are more affordable.

If I can choose again, would I go for ASEAN scholarship? The answer is a big resounding NO. I see more disadvantages than advantages in the ASEAN scholarship.

Ten years of wasted life is enough,...