the same playing field?

Having read the comment by the Selangor Menteri Besar on his comments on UiTM, I was really relived that at last there can be more competition and cooperation between Malaysian regardless of race and religion, even if it was just 10%, its a good start. But suddenly there was some relentless individuals who saw this as an attack , and we had students who wore black marching to demonstrate on a "suggestion". What makes me wonder more is why people higher up in the institution hierarchy was also up against the "suggestion" by an individual, and wanting to be a university of international standards seems more of just a slogan than a target.

Universities should be building bridges between the gaps made by the education system (that i will write later in the near future), because campus life should be a preparatory platform before these young adults can enter the real world which is not made of up of certain groups but a mixture of ethnic, religion, background and etc, and under the country of Malaysia. What Malaysia lacks currently after the 1969 issue was integration between people. and even after so many years, the issue is still there. The national school had a good start but started to fizzle out. universities open their doors to everyone (even tough theres the quota system), yet we still see these young groups of individuals mixing with those of the same ideology, thus integration was not achieved. One of the 1969 issue was because the bumi (i wouldnt say bumi..but should be malay) was not happy with regards to wealth distribution between the races, so the government came up with the NEP, which was suppose to create the balance between the races. But how successful of NEP seems to only be a poison if the idea was kept too long. Suddenly these bumi's become too dependent , while other's had to fend for themselves. So when put on the same playing field, the problems is not only just still there but worsens. The same is said for university, if you don't prepare and coach individual to play on a level playing field, it would be a mountain to climb once they are on the field.

I graduated from a an IPTA which not many non-bumi would like to attend because of the name (IIUM/UIAM..but those who do come, they are exceptionally good... i missed the time in secondary school though where I could mixed with everyone). It really caused a few problems when some of us where in the real world, because we were not exposed to a Malaysian scenario (international..a little yes) it became quite hard (its a good thing I attended those open seminars and programes where there is everyone Malaysia, so I had a head start compared to my comrades). I am sure there are handfulls of people who can tolerate each other, but if there still exist group lines within our institution, we cannot achieve integration at the national level.

Coming back to UiTM, im not underminig their intelectual (knowledge base) credibility. There are a few exceptional individuals in the institution, but when you coach students on a field that does not reflect the real world, you just cannot get the desired result. I would like to suggest to for students and administrators alike within such institution to have debates and seminar on the concept of integration, and not jump the gun without studying the consequences. Opening the doors to have a better practicing field can prepare everyone better, and in reality, it is true non-bumi works harder than the bumi (not all..but most). Why wait till going to the playing field to realize we are at a disadvantage?