ASEAN Scholarship - A Life's Experience

Readers out there are probably aware that both Kian Ming and myself, who are both loyal and dedicated Malaysians, were both products of the Singapore, or more specifically, the Rafflesian secondary school system, courtesy of the Asean Scholarship. I've written about it a year ago here, whilst Kian Ming wrote on the pros of the Singapore education system here.

But I thought, instead of just listening to both of us, have a read at Charlotte's experience, which she has published on her blog. Charlotte's a final year engineering student at Imperial College under a Scholarship from a Malaysian corporation. I can only say that her words were true to me, and if there were that many scholars who actually shared the same experience despite a total gap between Charlotte, Kian Ming and myself of more than a dozen years - then surely, the Asean Scholars' experience is a fairly consistent one.

Her post certainly struck a chord when she talked about her teachers, the rich extra-curricular activities, the "competition" and even the facilities. She posed the hypothetical question if she would do it all over again, and the answer as affirmative. Mine will certainly be the same.

But the most thankful thing (in my opinion anyway) I found in her post? It was in her last paragraph:

Deep down, I'm patriotically Malaysian by nature and I still snigger at Singaporean news from time to time, however I can't deny that Singapore gave me a chance to see things from a different perspective, while Malaysia is continuously trying to pull wool over my eyes. Would I do it all over again? Any day, baby, any day.

Yes, Singapore gave me a different perspective and certainly opened up the world to me in a way which I'm not sure if the Malaysian secondary education system could. However, it's that experience which I've gathered and earned which I wish to share and contribute to further the development and betterment of all Malaysians.