JULY 19 — In Malaysia, we don’t have the four seasons. However, certain things in Malaysia are as predictable as the four seasons in temperate countries.

Every year, the Auditor General’s (AG) report outlines the abuses and wastage in government spending. Every year, there is a big ‘hoohaa’ after the release of the AG’s annual report, with calls for reform from NGOs and civil society and promises from the authorities to tackle the problems. Two or three weeks after the release, everybody is deemed to have done their duty and everything is forgotten till the next round.

Then we have the perennial haze problem, and the usual predictable responses from politicians across both divides asking that something be done to solve the problem permanently. Yearly, the Indonesian authorities blame Malaysian companies. The Malaysian companies will then issue a denial, and after a few days, the wind changes direction, the sky becomes clear again, and everyone forgets about the issue.

Around this time of the year, another perennial problem surfaces, and it surfaced this week once more.

Many straight A students were denied places to study the course of their choice and these poor students have nowhere to turn to, except to the media and the politicians.

Every year, the politicians will play the role of firemen, and individual cases sometimes do get a reprieve, and after an appeal, some of these students may get the place that they seek.

What is needed is a more systematic way of tackling this problem. Why there isn’t a comprehensive policy to solve the problem really baffles me.

To deny these crème de la crème places to study will cost the country dearly in the long run. Logic will tell us that if the best is not given the chance to develop their potential, how are we going to face an increasingly competitive world?

Looking at many of the advanced countries, they not only allow their best to develop their full potential, they are also seeking to attract the best brains from other nations to emigrate to their country, so as to tap into these potential world beaters.

I suspect some little napoleons are at play in this yearly fiasco of refusing the best their choice of study. These little napoleons use the excuse that these students did not do well in their interviews or are poor in English.

We all know that interviews are very subjective. This ‘subjectiveness’ can sometimes be manipulated into reasons to reject a student from pursuing his or her dream. But if most of the best (more than 50 straight As students) are deemed to have failed in the interviews or lack English proficiency, then what about those who are not

academic yet are still given places to study in their preferred course in university? Logic will tell us that if the best don’t have a good command of English, then how can the second best be better than the best?

We can understand if one or two do not perform well in the interview or struggle with their English, but if most of the crème de la crème fail to gain entry because they are said to perform poorly in interviews, and then there must be something wrong with the methodology of the interviews or the people conducting the interviews. As simple as that!

The law of averages will tell you that if the average best is not as good as the average second best, then there is something wrong with the system or the people manning the system.

I strongly suggest that all future interviews be recorded. With the technology now, this can easily be done. If there is any dispute, or if there is any need to audit the interview, then the authorities can go through these recordings and see for themselves whether a student fails because of his or her poor responses during the interview process, or whether he or she fails because of the ‘subjectiveness’ of the people conducting the interviews.

We can no longer afford to allow little napoleons to deny our best a chance to develop their potential.

Our future competitiveness is at stake.

The nation’s future is at stake.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.