OF the many letters published lately, the ones most heart-rending to read concern the able and deserving students who, riding the wave of euphoria for achieving the best Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia results, which they can say with genuine pride they truly earned after months of burning the midnight oil, suddenly find their hopes of fulfilling their ambitions shattered, all because the Public Service Department has denied them a scholarship.

The distinguished writer (and surgeon) Bakri Musa, in his book The Malay Dilemma Revisited, sounded off his displeasure at the sickening thought of affluent families coming in their luxury cars to pick up PSD scholarship forms.

A scholarship, as most of us understand it, is “an amount of money given by a school, college, university or other organisation to pay for a person with great ability but little money to study” (as any good dictionary would define it).

It is not frivolous to state here, like many have done in the past, that by denying these students the means to study further, the nation is not only doing them a great disservice but also depriving itself, perhaps, of the future services of a Madame Curie, a C.N. Yang, a V.S. Naipaul, a Newton, a Fleming, a von Braun, an Einstein, et al.

History records that Antoine Lavoisier, known as the “Father of Modern Chemistry”, lost his life by guillotine in the French Revolution. His colleague, Lagrange, the famed Italian mathematician, remarked that “it took them only an instant to chop off his head, but France may not produce another like him in a century”.

Here, it would be salutary to remind ourselves that our nation should regard its bright students as priceless assets it can least afford to lose, not by decapitation, surely, but if they decide to vote with their feet.

Given the opportunity to embark on the course of their choice, their invaluable expertise and contribution here later would enable this beloved country of ours to join the league of nations renowned for their various achievements and accomplishments.

The government must provide the support, financial or otherwise, these students deserve. This would stop the brain drain of our brightest and ablest.

SYLVESTER GOH,Petaling Jaya

Source: NST – May 30, 2008