THE TRUTH ABOUT UPU

DISCLAIMER

I have no intentions of denouncing a government system. Here are just some truthful criticism intended  for a better understanding and enlightenment towards the particular subject. 

Let's start by clearing up the facts about one of the most shadiest systems I've ever faced and endured my entire life. I  just want the readers to know that I really doubt that this information is already known especially to SPM-leavers who are currently signing forms and applications scattered all over the internet to find a pathway to a successful life. I just want this information to be known to all the students out there of all decent.

If any of you come across my introduction I've phrased something about 'privilege'. I'm not trying to address myself or label myself as a Social Justice Warrior who lurks in the depths of Tumblr that advocates for Fat Acceptance and the tolerance of 76,000 genders. Furthermore, I'm totally against these types of delusional thinking. What I'm about to unveil is nothing of the sorts.

This is just a thought.

The meritocracy claimed to be used by the system. source

source

A conclusion that can be made here is that being privileged means being a 'Bumiputera'. Some high-achieving candidates are not born into this 'privilege'. This not privileged group of people are sometimes more persistent,diligent and sometimes might even suffer terribly from hardships to achieve their goals but their dreams can vanquish in a blink of an eye due to not meeting that specific requirement. This group of people are forced to thrive for another 1 year and a half  enduring STPM even if it's not that their first choice and even if they actually can have limitless opportunities instead of  partaking in a grueling struggle. Not to mention STPM candidates are only given a 10% quota for most public university intakes. Even worse, some who are successful in their STPM examinations are still not given the chance to be enrolled into courses they chose in those higher institutions.

A number of high-achieving students are heartbroken each year, this is just one of the cases.

Before I move on, this might be few of the arguments that may pop-up on your mind after going through this post.

1) The choice of going through matriculation instead of STPM
     The quota for government matriculation colleges is mostly reserved for 'Bumiputera'

2) He/She may not have pleasing co-curricular marks
    Because of the systems flaws, I've been mistaken as a non-bumiputera but my grades for both academics and co-curriculum are still kept he same in the application. I have no intention of being boastful, my co-curriculum GPA for 2017 is 100.00, my CGPA (total) is 90.21. I'll explain the full story later.

3) I'm racist
    Am I? This post isn't entirely talking about the biased system but also about how inefficient and          unreliable it is.

4) He/She applied for 'popular courses'
    Sweetie, you don't know fully what your talking about. Is it fair if a more deserving student with a higher merit is rejected while a student with a slightly lower merit or just 'average' is selected due to his or her 'Bumiputera' status ? Not forgetting to state the fact that if one of your parents doesn't have a 'Bumiputera' status while your categorized as one, even with a high merit, you will still be placed behind and not prioritized. My focus here is about quota, not the demand for popular courses.

My Story

As you can understand by what I mentioned earlier, you now know me as a 'Bumiputera'.Now you might think to yourself on why am I explaining  and ranting about all this hardship that I don't struggle with.' Actually, even with the usage of IT where analysis would be done more efficiently, the UPU System still wasn't able to manage a simple classification  task.

I was terribly struck by a fever and I still can remember that I was on a couch and could hardly move during a hot afternoon. It was the day the UPU results came out and I was still nervous to know mine until that time. In my mindset, in my family's mindset, in everyone's mindset! I was going to get what I applied for. They knew I worked hard enough and not to be arrogant, I got wonderful results through a lot of grit. So, as I was waiting for the page to load due to poor connection because of the 'flooded' server, I decided to put down my phone beside me as I was just feeling very ill because of my fever. After a while , I looked at the phone screen, in bright red letters it read 'PERMOHONAN ANDA TIDAK BERJAYA'. In my hazy mind, I thought 'maybe I typed in my IC wrongly', I tried it again and as I waited for the page to load I had a Whatsapp conversation with my mom and she was terribly shock, I told her not to worry and as I opened the page again the same bright red letters flashed on the screen. I myself was starting to get worried, I was really sick at that time and now this! During that time when the UPU results were out, all my social media applications were flooding with notifications. I opened Whatsapp and then Telegram, all my friends got offers from all the universities that they applied. I on the other hand was sad and at the same time very envious. They all got offers from UM,UIAM,UiTM. I thought to myself, people who got ordinary results even got what they wanted. The only thing I was thinking to myself, something was insanely not right. Even my dad asked me about my UPU results, I just straight up say my application wasn't successful. During that time, only both my parents knew.

To the people who read this and starts to think that I'm a narcissist please keep in mind that I'm not being boastful, I'm being realistic.

During that afternoon , the only people that were home was me and my grandma. I didn't have the guts to tell her. She'll burst into tears, I just knew it. Later on, my dad came home. During this time, all that I wanted to do was avoid any conversation with my elders. I was at the living room lying on the sofa, I overheard my dad and grandma at the kitchen talking about how my application wasn't successful. I was the type of person who bites the bullet, even how hurtful it can be so I walked into the kitchen and took a sit at the dining table where my dad and grandma was at the moment. Like many elders, my grandmother has a very stubborn mindset and very strong beliefs. My grandma was born during the time where Sabahans were neglected, looked down upon and very inferior. All she can say is that ' People here don't like Sabahans' and yes, I was raised in a Sabahan household in Peninsular Malaysia. I was crying inside, I didn't know what to think. My father on the other hand was keeping his calm, he tried to hide his sorrow with his laid-back attitude. At that night, it was very silent at the dinner table. I didn't dare open my mouth about the subject. All I can think of was how I imagined myself after getting my application results. I'm very realistic towards my hopes and dreams, I'm a very strong believer of hard work. I know what I deserve. At the same time, I was also shocked and I've never felt so sad and hopeless in my entire life. Truthfully, I can't really explain what happen at the dinner table at the time. My grandmother was still shedding tears, my little sisters that were still very innocent at that time, it irritated me but I tried to remain rational and my mother stormed off the dinner table and went straight to her bedroom. The worst part is I can't tell whether she felt saddened like me and felt that it was unfair or was she plainly disappointed by me. Just imagine, a mother that was very proud of her child's results and had high hopes he/she will get into the reputable institutions suddenly knew her child's application to ALL of  the institutions weren't accepted. Hopes and dreams shattered into a million pieces.

I felt very depressed that I was thinking of giving up my faith in God. Nauzubillah min zalik. I was at the surau that night for tarawih. I was accommodated with the feeling of abandoning all hope.  I can still remember the few days before UPU results were out, neighbors started asking about where was I going to  further my studies. They knew me, it was very accidental on how they knew about my results but in any community these days, everyone could know anything about anyone in just a few minutes. To be honest, it was quite humorous but I decide not to share it because it doesn't fill the mood of this story. All that happiness turns into regret as I was very ashamed of telling anyone my results. I was so sad and depressed that I couldn't even sat up straight. My head was leaning sideways on a wall all the time at that surau.

The day UPU results came out was about 3-5 days before the enrollment to government matriculation. I've never thought that I would be registering there! I cried and shed tears every day before the day of the registration. Looking back on how I felt towards government matriculation, I feel very shameful and disgusted towards myself. For anyone who didn't know about the hardship faced by non-'Bumiputera', getting an offer to be enrolled to a government matriculation was like having the basic rights of a Malaysian student to be registered to any public secondary school after UPSR. At that time, I didn't know that most non-'Bumiputera' were very diligent in their studies because they know whats coming. Their biggest hope IS matriculation especially those who live in lower classes of society.

Surprisingly, the few weeks at government matriculation was one of the best times of my life. At first, all I thought was to get through the end of the 2 semesters with a 4 flat. I was telling myself again and again that I wasn't going to make a life there. All I could do at that time was fill in the e-rayuan hoping to get an offer of the remaining institutions that still had vacancies. The only institution I was putting my hopes up for was only UKM. The only thing my mom and I could assume on why I didn't get any offers was because I filled up the application form with wrong information or such but the application form itself had technical errors. The first few times I was filling the form and later on clicking 'save', I noticed how one of my personal information if I'm not mistaken which is the birth date was changed even though I knew I filled it up correctly each time before I clicked 'save'! My mom actually told the whole batch parents Whatsapp group about my case. A member of the PIBG stated that the e - rayuan link is faulty. He also stated to my mom to straightly go to the institutions (UM,UIAM) to confront them about me. My mom tried to call a number the system gave in case of any inquiries but failed each time.

 After two weeks in matriculation college I knew my original thoughts and assumptions about there was wrong , I got to meet very genuine friends there even though I just met them. My close friends from boarding school was shocked to know I was enrolled into matriculation, I didn't dare to tell them until I had to confess the truth after a friend from boarding school who got into the same matriculation college as me told my close friends I was spotted there. Even my friends thought it was unjust but by the time I was at matriculation college most of them were still playing online mobile games that was taking over their lives.  During the time I was at matriculation, my mom was on to something. I never thought she would take such a big effort to make sure I was rejected into the those higher institutions for a valid reason. She and a dear friend of hers went to UM. My mom told me how she and her friend confronted the person in-charge about my situation and later on that person stated how even he was stunned by my case. He called one of the personnel that handles the categorization and that particular person stated I was already accepted to UKM through the    e-rayuan application but my mom wasn't satisfied with that, she wanted to know why I was rejected by all the institutions I signed up for, that personnel finally opened up about my case. The personnel stated that they didn't know the ethnic group I chose in the race selection that there own system has set-up! Instead they irresponsibly assumed my father was Indian through his name! The person in-charge gave me a  second opportunity to fill in the UPU application through the e-rayuan link meaning that they opened up university vacancies that wasn't included in e-rayuan but I was very frustated as the new options were only UM. Also, the results will also be announced on the same date as e-rayuan. I didn't know what to felt, I was very enraged, felt very grateful to God but at the same time felt relieved that my assumption was correct, it was a mistake done by the system itself! 

A week before the results were out I confronted the student counselor about my situation. Even with all the bad rap matriculation was getting, I wasn't able to fully acknowledge it. During the first few days in the college they explained a lot of the pros and I wanted to know more. One of it was the quota for government matriculation students entering public universites. I wanted to know the pros and cons and the comparison of the pre-university programs which was foundation and matriculation. Later on, I also had gathered bits of information about diploma studies and STPM. To know more about that, click here


On the day results were out, I wasn't nervous or anxious like my usual self but to I also have not accepted the fact on what has happened to me completely. I was oddly content at the moment mostly because as a Muslim, I accepted that this was an inevitable ordeal from God to test my fate and I must overcome it with the best approach. Plus, I had a very wonderful experience in college matriculation. After receiving the results, I was accepted to UM. Alhamdulillah. All I knew at that time was to tell the news but was I ready to leave there? absolutely not! However, after savoring the last day in college, on that night I was on my way home.

All's well ends well? It doesn't end there, during the long process of dropping out from matriculation college at the time I wasn't alone. We decided to demand a refund solely for the admittance fee which was RM 500, later we knew that no refunds was going to be entertained. What I'm trying to conclude here is due to the UPU system's poor knowledge of race and ethnic groups caused me a number of unnecessary ordeals including the abrupt preparation to go to matriculation college since I wasn't planning to go there and of course the fee itself which could not be refunded. It's very ironic how a system designed to be efficient in terms of simplifying the method for applying to higher institutions become the cause of such ordeals. 

One of my relatives stated during filling a government form, when stating your race you shouldn't state that your a Bumiputera Sabah or specify your ethnicity. You should just state your a Malay, because it still categorizes you with a status of 'Bumiputera' BUT then whats the purpose of an application for example the UPU System listing down Bumiputera Sabah, Bumiputera Sarawak and ALL the other ethnic groups if they themselves doesn't have the knowledge of any and fail the task of classifying them correct-fully. 

I really appreciate the people who take the time to read this post and I pray that you or any of your relatives do not endure the ordeal I suffered and the true purpose of this criticism is to share the insights of my experiences, hoping that it will end and having people knowing this and sharing this is enough for me personally. If you wish to ask for proof, I am very willing to give it but I still wish to remain anonymous as much as possible.

Thank you.