The Public Service Department (PSD) scholarships are among of the most sought after scholarships in Malaysia.

According to Wan Chang Da (a D. Phil candidate at the University of Oxford) in 2008, 15,200 applicants vied for the 2,000 scholarships.

Because of the intense competition for the last few years, there has been constant debates concerning the fairness transparency and the manner the selection process is undertaken.

According to Deputy Education Minister Wee Ka Siong "government officers who failed to follow cabinet directives was one of the main reasons why top students failed to get scholarships and this effectively strengthens the presupposition that the Malaysian public administrator is more powerful than the cabinet".

While last year (2010) Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak generously extended scholarships to those who scored 8A+ as well but there were 4,298 unsuccessful candidates.

On the other hand on 20th May 2011 Lim Guan Eng blamed Putrajaya for the annual uproar over public scholarship awards and urged a full investigation in the education saga which he claims is draining Malaysia of home grown talent.

In this regard how is it possible to achieve success of the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) advocated by the prime minister when government officials cannot possibly get right the simple job of offering scholarships to the best students.

Shame on them.

It is even more worrying to note when Wee Ka Siong said "some 363 straight A+ students who deserved to be funded to study abroad had lost out to those with lower grades".

In the meantime, MCA President Chua Soi Lek announced the setting up of a RM30 million education fund to help poor students of all races. It would give out financial assistance and interest- free loans to help such students.

While the move is very encouraging and welcomed, why is the government is reluctant to undertake constructive steps to overcome this problem thus far?

While Chua says "the new education fund will be open to people of all races", Perkasa says "Malay students were the ones who were losing out when it come to receiving scholarships".

Where is the basis for the making of such baseless and unfounded remark?

The fundamental objective should be to help all deserving students on merit and facts so therefore it is critical that we must never mix this issue with racial sentiments.

It is absolutely true that public scholarships play an important role in the development of human capital.

But the Malaysian public is overly concerned over the selection criteria, its fairness and transparency and the political and racial sensitivities.

Many agree that it is time to publish the names of all recipients so that there will be no arguments as to the veracity of the selection process.

This fiasco brings up another question. How do they evaluate the scholars?

The best practice in such scenarios will be to appoint an independent committee that is free from any form of Government control to evaluate such scholars.

They could be accomplished leaders in the private sector or prominent members of non-governmental organisations or charity organisations which would effectively reduce the likelihood of conflict of interest.

This independent committee will lead to more honest assessment of scholars and individuals must be selected based upon talents and abilities and the phenomenon of perpetuation of elitism should be avoided.

Finally, Wan Chang Da says "without a clear understanding of the purpose of these scholarships, it is difficult to examine the evaluation framework for selection.

"The weakness of the existing evaluation framework is quite apparent and at the same time there must be an alternative way that is more objective and independent to select applicants for these scholarships.

"In addition, a clear distinction between career-specific and merit-based scholarships, as well as a need-based financial aid, may enhance the efficiency of managing these scholarships which also have implications to counter the increasing bond-breaching among scholars.

"Through recognising and putting more thoughts into these points, this could contribute towards developing a fairer and more efficient public scholarships system in Malaysia".