“Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela
I have talked with many UTAR undergraduates and lecturers, and most of them tell me in no uncertain terms that the Bumiputeras and Muslim Malays are not interested in applying at all, even though applications are open to them.
Bumiputeras would rather attend UiTM or other universities which have a big majority percentage of Malays.
Therefore, it is the discrimination of the Malay undergraduates against UTAR, and not the discrimination of UTAR for not accepting Malay intakes.
As the CEO of BorneoHunter, an executive search firm, the feedback from our multi-national corporation (MNCs) clients who are graduates from UiTM are in general very one-dimensional, too quiet, and unpassionate. They have difficulty thinking out of the box, are cliquish and don't mix with well with other races and foreigners. They are awkward, quite judgemental and are not accommodating and accepting of other races’ opinions.
The other important aspect in seeking employment in big international companies is the command of English which is universally accepted as the language of global business, finance, law, IT, internet, marketing, engineering, science and arts.
A large percentage of resumes we receive from UiTM graduates display poor English. They are not even competent enough to construct a proper English sentence. When a graduate climbs up the corporate ladder based on meritocracy, many business and strategic plans must be written in good English and must be expressed and presented well in English. If not, one will be left behind in promotions as the competition for higher levels of management is fierce.
Understandably, UiTM-type graduates either prefer to work with government departments, GLCs and uniform forces, or because they have fewer options, they may be be forced to work with these uncompetitive organisations.
By isolating its students from other races and foreigners, UiTM has done real damage to the development of its undergraduates. The role of a university is to expose its students to the latest international thinking in corporate, business, finance, marketing, science or whatever field of studies.
UiTM only admits 100% Bumiputeras exclusively except for preparatory programmes where non-Bumiputeras are admitted at International Education College (INTEC), Malaysia, a campus of the university. This policy is unfortunately protected by virtue of Article 153 of the Constitution of Malaysia.
That in itself is blatantly racist and smacks of religious bigotry. It’s time that UiTM looked into being relevant, global, and progressive in today’s modern, open, free society.
In contrast, I’m personally quite impressed with the high calibre of UTAR undergraduates from the fields of marketing, public relations and finance. It is a known fact that most human resource managers will find it obvious that there is a significant contrast between UiTM and UTAR graduates that they interview.
As the Founder of ChangeU Group, we have hired many good quality interns and management trainees from UTAR. For the last two years in a row, “The Best ChangeU Intern of the Year 2012 and 2013” were from UTAR.
UTAR interns compete well with our other interns from Monash, Taylor’s, Sunway, MMU, iACT, Iowa (US), NUS, Melbourne, Telecom Business School, Evry (France), Lim Kok Wing, KDU, UM, UPM and UUM.
Many UTAR graduates have the added advantage of being able to speak Mandarin fluently. Some are also fluent in Cantonese, which is necessary in dealing with our China, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong clients.
I even took a UTAR undergraduate who was the best ChangeU intern of 2012 along to a senior manager convention in Manila of one of the top 100 Malaysian brands with all expenses paid to further expose him to the international business environment.
I find UTAR interns generally to be open to new challenges, willing, quick to learn, resourceful, innovative, productive and able to hold intelligent debate on many issues. And more importantly, they are adaptive to our creative, high AQ (adversity quotient) and performance working culture and our clients’ pressure-cooker working environments.
The heads of human resources from our top brand clients such as Naza, Petronas, Public Bank, Genting, Celcom, Habib, Jewels, MSC and Berjaya are consistently impressed with our UTAR undergraduate interns and have made direct job offers to them.
Lastly, we will be very happy to accept expressive interns with the calibre of Dyana Sofya of UiTM and K.S. Bawani UUM law undergraduate of the “Listen, Listen, listen” fame. They are a rare breed who blossomed by their own efforts and personal values within a university that is a bit backward in thinking and approach as in UiTM – this is the feedback of our esteemed international human resources associates.
I hope this article is an eye-opener and a truthful wake-up call for future Malay students to decide wisely which progressive universities are best in developing them to be a healthily competitive and competent employee in either a local or international corporation. Or, Malay students and their parents can express and demand that their university be more progressive and less racist.
“We can change Malaysia by insisting on changing our education system to be progressive, inclusive, competitive, expressive, and innovative.” – May 20, 2014.
This piece of writing is written by the 'so called' Mr. Robert Chaen, who claims to be an International Change Expert, Online Pollster, founder of ChangeU Group and CEO of BorneoHunter (he must be a hell of a man. Look at his list of jobs!). But you know, people have a lot of claims for themselves but for the sake of simplicity, I'll just trust his claim.
My first comment will be on the issue of the command of English. I am sorry. I am not sure which UiTM graduate he had spoken to but as far as I am concern, UiTM graduates do speak English and most of us (if not all) speaks English rather well. Of course there will always be the weakest link among us (so does UTAR graduates). But over generalizing that all UiTM grads have a poor command of English is an utter lie (and we should have your apology there). Let me tell you my story. I graduated on August 2013 (officially earn my degree on November 2013). Up until now, I've been to numerous interviews and from all my interview, the panel actually praised my command of English. Some of them have actually said (and I am quoting) "You have the best command of English of all the candidates today". I am not saying I am fluent and flawless in English but I got the message passed to the panel. And that is the most important. Do I have your apology now?
On the subject of competitiveness. Again, what you were writing is a loose claim which is not supported by facts and figures. Upon my graduation until now, I've been to numerous interviews (as I claimed before). 8 interviews to be precise (2 government post, 6 private sectors). From the 6 private sector interviews, 4 of which are from a big multinational companies (Hitachi, Honda, Linde and Sime Darby). To contradict your claim, from the 8 interviews I've been through, 5 offered me the job I applied for. Success rate? 62.5%. The other 37.5% actually just cannot commit to the salary I am asking for. And errr... I am a UiTM graduate. The graduate you said very one-dimensional, too quiet, unpassionate, have difficulty thinking out of the box, are cliquish and don't mix with well with other races and foreigners.
In my humble opinion, it is the person who makes all the difference. Whether they wants to be a highly competitive person or having a laid back attitude. The institution does nothing to their attitude. They need to have the go getter attitude in order for them to be successful in whatever they are doing. Let me give you an example. Have you ever heard the name Hamka (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamka)? Mr. Hamka never received a university education but his books and writings are widely used as syllabus in universities all over the world. Who said university is such an important tools of success?
And one more, I don't agree when you includes government sectors as an uncompetitive sector. Do you know the number of graduates applying for a government post and how many of them manage to squeeze in? Do your research first Mr. Chaen. I am surprised you don't know the fact when you claimed that you are the CEO of a headhunting company.
Mr. Chaen, I seriously believe you owe us an apology. Apology for the piece of irresponsible writing you just did, a blatant lie you just published and a judgemental thought you have!
* Original writing of Mr. Rober Chaen in The Malaysian Insider: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/a-tale-of-two-universities-uitm-and-utar-robert-chaen
Mr. Chaen's personal website: http://robertchaen.com/
Mr. Chaen's LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/robert-chaen/46/453/917
* The writer is Muhammad Firdaus Bin Mohd Nazam, an ordinary Engineer for Linde Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. Period!
