Screenshots

We always see this respind when there is a protest. But what if we didn't protest?

i doubt a MNC like Motorola would practice such a thing. SOmeone in MMU (smart alec) altered it.

thanks CWL. :P

maybe a hacker did it, MMU is full of hackers who can defame a website easliy.

whether it's a smart alec or a hacker, MMU should step up and respond by now. Given another 24 hours without any response, that'll show that MMU totally couldn't care less about this issue, besides taking it down on request from Mtrla (sorry, can't resist not to mock their Razr line)

The Student Admission and Scholarship Unit shuold respond to this! they are the one who posted up the advert!

c'mon people mmu will not response. racism in malaysia is institutionalised.
and people don't stop protesting. malaysian institutions and corporations may think that racism is acceptable, let make sure the multi-nationals smells the tahi if they even remotely entertain that practice.
and no, this is not in support of the chinese or the indians or the minority natives, this is for everyone. if sony ever put up an ad that say: "hiring: chinese only need apply" we will let the whole world know. but if the job ad says: "mus be able to speak chinese/malay/indians/kadazan(pick one)" then perhaps one should learn the language if one wants that job...

Somebody must have given instructions to place this ad with its criteria. who? Will the truth be unearthed? In Malaysia, not likely.

lsk

Well said.

thank those who did not take this matter standing down. now that motorola has pushed the ball into MMU's court, let us look forward for a response....

or, better yet, anyone dare to write and mail an opinion to the newspapers?

I like to translate Motorola's letter into Malaysian context:

EOE = we wish to give equal opportunity to everybody regardless of race, religion, etc. (reality, for certain deparment, staff majority from one race - hint: not malays, not indians). Therefore motorola needs to hire more malays and indians in relevant areas such as software engineering & mechanical engineering.

AAE = we will adhare to affirmative action (in Malaysian context AA means quota)

Diversity Initiative = motorola will diversify its workforce and not only hire from one single race. In malaysian case at least, see EOE above.

Isk..big clap for you..well said..someone posted if the companies want to hire chinese only,that is their own matters.now if motorola want to take malay only,indian only,that should be their own matter also..that is their money

On a related note, MMU has posted a response:

http://bulletin.mmu.edu.my/v3/view/bulletin_main.mmu?s=34534&by=today

Clarification on Announcement of MOTOROLA's Sponsorship Posted on MMU Bulletin Board Dated 18 April 2006

Take note that Motorola was concerned that they did not receive a good spread of applicants and wanted the names of qualified Indian and Bumi students to be given to them.

An Officer of the Admission and Scholarship Division, has, out of his own accord, advertised it the way he did, rather than obtained the list of qualified Indian and Bumi students through the University’s record.

It is regretful that the Officer’s advertisement that appeared in the University’s Bulletin Board has been misinterpreted and has caused much anguish.

Nik Zaitun Nik Salleh
Director
Student Admission and Scholarship Division

Nik Zaitun Nik Salleh

Is this the official response of MMU or your personal view.

If it is MMU's official response MMU should write to Jeff or to the mainstream media, rather whispering on the conversation forum here

Nik Zaitun Nik Salleh

Regretful is not sufficient. MMU should apologise.

I thought your response here is a tad arrogant given the sensitivity of the issue.

The officer concerned should either be sacked or demoted, since tarnishing the good reputation of MOTOROLA.

Folks

Look like the response of MMU is official on the website.

The way the clarification is put out by MMU, it appears we, the readers misinterpreted the advertisement.

I don't think we the readers misinterpret the advertisement. It is as clear as bright sunshine the way it was posted.

The way it was explained in MMU's clarification, the Officer concerned did NOT misinterpret the request of MOTOROLA. He simply did NOT follow instruction and just did it on his whim and fancy on the advert. Unless he is a very senior officer, he must have got authorisation to post that advert. He could not have done it on his own.

To say that MMU only regret that the advert was misinterpreted ( by implication ie by the readers) is, to me, an insult to the readers' intelligence, and is a bit arrogant.

Firstly, MMU should have apologise publicly for the stupid action of the Officer for causing anguish to the general public

Secondly, MMU should also publicly apologise for the fact that the action of MMU ie the officer, misinterpreted or stupid enough not to understand the instruction of MOTOROLA.

The question is whether the clarification by MMU's Director of Student Admission and Scholarship Division smacks of
ARROGANCE or he had poor command of the English language to communicate his genuine intentions which made the issue worse for MMU.

Which is which? Help me here, folks.

If it is arrogance, it is time MOTOROLA disengages itself from MMU for the foreseeable future or at least for the next 5 years until MMU gets its house in order. This is not the FIRST tiem MMU bungled a sensitive public relations exercise.

Nik Zaitun Nik Salleh,

why is the officer is to be blame for all this! you as the head should accept part of the blame as well! As a private university has shown to all malaysian that malaysia is not for all! you are not a man who support our PM Pak-lah that support the rakyat! Do what Pak Lah said in public "I will walk the talk". you have done the error, admit it, say sorry and we all can move on with our lives. This matter is very bad and it should not continue!

Folks

I knew it. The response from the Director of Student Admission and Scholarship Division is a typical bureaucrat you normally find in public service eg JPA and reminds me of answers by a youth wing of one political party. Is he a seconded officer from the public service by JPA or a political appointment to MMU. If he is a recruit from a private sector, I would like to know which company he had worked before. If he is a direct recruit from university without prior experience, then, how could he have held such an important position and still unable to take responsibility for the bungling, and instead put a public blame on his junior staff.

Folks

I believe the name Nik Zaitun is female and not a male. Whatever it is, "he" as mentioned in my earlier posting be referred to as "she" if that is the case . I am gender blind here.

Oh god...

Frank, can you stop being a prick and stop picking on my university already? Go join the politics and change the world for god's sake. Enter United Nations and stop bush from waging another war, that'll be much more beneficial to mankind than to pick on MMU over and over. What's with you anyway? There's probably some private college/university that is doing the same type of announcement everyday. The only reason why you could even see this announcement is because the bulletin board is online... If you are not from MMU, quit whining. No one in MMU is complaining, why should you?

Again, for the love of god and all his angels, go do something more beneficial than yapping and picking on MMU.

Ken Watanabe

It is good to be prick, and you should know that because you talk like one.

MMU is truly incompetent when it comes to handling public relations exercise and it is so unfortunate that your University presents itself to be criticised and picked on, not just by me.

Well, why don't you respond to my comments on the clarification put out by your MMU, an institution of learning which is capable of making the same mistake twice within a year.

Ken Watanabe

Feedback, especially negative ones from the public is good.. It helps to improve your university's performance, integrity and prestige for the future.

As of now, MMU's public image and prestige are much to be desired. That's not only my view.

Hey, I am doing a great favour to you and your MMU Alumni to improve your university's performance in every aspect, currently I view as highly incompetent when handling this scholarship advert affairs.

In years to come, you and your MMU Alumni will thank me and all the readers here on this blog who had been criticising MMU.

As for now, those fools in the MMU who bungled the scholarship advert, made worse by the lousy response by your Director Student Admission and Scholarship Division, have to be publicly roasted. So that they can and will perform better and will take full responsibility for their own actions, for the sake of public and national interest.

why this frank is so eager to bash mmu?maybe he is a racist.can we ban a racist?i'm sure jeffooi dun wan a racist here

hazremi

You call a person who criticise MMU, a racist?

Your sense of logical reasoning is out of this world.

I won't be surprised if you are also a graduate of MMU?

Respond instead to my comments on the clarification put out by MMU on the MMU's website.

hazremi

MMU is an institutionof learning serving the Malaysian society at large.Abnd it solicit funds from the Malaysian community for its existence. Therefore criticising MMU for its bungling and inefficiency is par for the course. Learn that please.

Finally, there is clarifications given, and its nice to know Datin LN Chan is still with Motorola!
However, i'm shocked that their emails have been published, they cant expect some nasty spams soon!

Kamil,
While i agree with some of your comments, that certain departments in Motorola has more of certain races, let me assure you that it is in every managers personal career evaluation to create a racial & gender balance! This goes up to the director levels, heading the R&D department in Penang, Abdul Wahab & the KY who heads the software engineering group in Cyberjaya!

I do agree, like any company, personal preference at times superceeds professionalism within some managers. This happens in many companies. This is the reason why, Motorola prefers to have big scale walk in interviews, rather then hiring individual posts. This way, you have a diversified group of hiring managers, and include HR into the picture.

As far as i used to work with them, i was aware of efforts being made to narrow the racial gap. Unfortunately, you must also note that in certain areas such as engineering, IC design, telecommunication, the majority of the applying candidates with at least above 3.0 GPA is always lop sided when it comes to race!

When it comes to software engineering, i have set in a couple of large hiring sessions before with disapointing results. You cant expect a company like Mot to take a 2.5GPA student just because they want to balance the race! They will hire cream of the crop, regardless of race! And they have some very very talented individuals, who are indian & malays.

Hope this satisfies your concern!

Frank&Honest,
Why do you always get so extreame and emotional? just a day ago, you went to the extreame of bycotting Mot product and paying out of your pocket to print posters. Today, you change your anger towards MMU. I think one should be more objective in handling this situation, get all facts clear. I did mention to you guys, that Mot would not have done such a thing, but everyone seem to want ot be heard & vent their anger!

in General:
I think MMU should be more carefull about this in future and not make the same mistakes. Nothing wrong in making sure everyone benefits from scholorships, including our native sabahans & sarawakians. However, they must be carefull on their choise of words! Remember, we're all watching :)

sorry for some typo,i was kinda depressed with how you bash a university and at the same time u praise UM who dropped 80 places in world ranking in a year which i think is a world record.i was referring how u being racist yesterday and today u being so mad against mmu.what mmu had done to you before?

goks

You are a sentimentalist.

MOTOROLA has done the right thing. I have no more qualms with them. And I respect their response to our criticism.

Do you really think the clarification put out by MMU on the website show any claim of responsibility? I thought it was darn arrogant, more of insulting the readers of the scholarship advert.You see, it is only a clarification, not even an acceptance of the mistake they made.

You gave advice to MMU not to make the same mistake. Well they made the same mistake this time around. Tell them again, please don't repeat and let it go. We did that when they fumbled the Bosch scholarship.

Read my response to Ken Watanabe on the good reasons why we criticise as harsh as we can. Its for a good cause for MMU.

I am now convinced that Frank&Honest has nothing better to do with his time than to post comments on this blog every 5 minutes or so.

Anyway, it's good that both Motorola and MMU reverted with official statements that clarify the scholarship announcement.

Let's hope that MMU will hire better copywriters to pen their announcements in future!

hazremi

You have not read how harsh my criticism was on University of Malaya, not just the vertical drop of its standard but for the stupid politicisation of the university affecting the academic staff and the students.

hazemi,

this is the common problem with malaysian, bash like hell first, think later! Hence why you note that some of Jeff's "comment replies" have requested bashers to stay on course, on topic! Unfortunately, there is a "I want to be heard" syndrome, that leads many objective commenters, to turn into empty vessels!

Dont get depressed, do your part and carry on mate :)

xweird

I am trying to do the right thing for our fellow countrymen. Their kids are also applying to study in MMU. THose fools in MMU should be taken to task for their imcompetence.

I am sacrificing my precious time here for a good cause.. to improve MMU's performance.

Frank&Honest,

Noted, thanks. I didnt find the MMU response arrogant, probably because i am so used to dealing with people who cant read or write good english inside Malaysia. Hence, i accept that when they said the officer wrote it the way he did, without doing it the right way!!!

MMU needs to get more professional with their staff, that i agree! Also, thats why we have websites like screenshots, to make sure people who repeat these mistakes, dont get away scot free, hence become a culture of zero corporate governance!

goks

So you think the clarification put out by the Director Student Admission and Scholarship Division because he/she has such and lousy poor command of the English language rather than his/her arrogance in the way it was posted on the website?

I can accept that, and hopefully the Director himself/herself can accept your assesment too.

Whether some MMU officer simply did not follow instructions, and hantam the ad on his own accord [hence presumably without the OK from his superiors and/or Nik Zaitun] we will probably never know for sure.

But from press reports all these years, there have been quite a number of instances where minor officials and some not-so-minor officials have taken it upon themselves to impliment additional conditions on top of whatever was the official stance.

At the end of the day, what is there to stop the minor oficial in MMU from implimenting his own screening procedures? I think there is essentially nothing. Only his personal integrity and perhaps his superior's supervisory action. It is easy to lose files, to spoil certain papers, to do all sorts of dastardly things, if he wanted to.

I think unless we Malaysians start to grow more united, no amount of protest over racist ads and such will do much good. Sadly, too many of our political leaders are playing games and such, busy trying to garner more support support, waving hugh keris about, knocking whatever race happens to be the flavour of the month to knock, bodek whatever race it is prudent at that time to bodek. Others too busy bodek-bodek to speak out when they should. I place very little hope in them.

Me, I do what I can with my child and his friends. Nurturing them and teaching them to cross racial boundaries. Hopefully, that small bit will bear fruit in time to come. Perhaps then they may help in some way to make Malaysia a place where we do not have to contend with ads such as the MMU ad, the suspicions and anger it evoked, and the questions of why it came out.

Well, you can take it anyway actually depending on what kind of end results is expected. I personally dont think it's arrogant because i expect them to learn from this and establish a proper corp. comms. channel going forward.

In the corp world, before any announcement is posted on a website, it is written by a qualified corp. comms. person, reviewed again & again by several people before beign posted. This i know happens in established MNC's like Motorola. Trust me, the above response from Motorola would have circulated through at least 3-5 hands before being posted to Jeff :)

Ofcourse, we have noted here that over several incidents, that this isnt well enforced in MMU. high time someone up there does something about it. If he isnt, then he can be considered as arrogant! :)

And we will always be on their back! So this boils to the question, what exactly you want to be done with MMU?

As for misinterpretation of the add, i think yes many did, though i beleive they would have known the actual reason behind the ad, however wrongly it was written.

Its normal for EO/AAE employers in malaysia to make sure all races are given fair representation in the selection process. hence when they see majority of the apps from 1 race, they will ask for the Uni to give nomination on other races too. HOWEVER, the sholorships will only be given to qualifying candidates. Hence if you get what i mean, there could be Bumi/Indian students out there that did not take the opportunity to read about this scholorship offer, or "were unaware" of the application process, and Motorola would feel they should NOT be prejudiced and be given fair & equal opportunity to apply.

Hence, they could have asked for MMU's nomination from other races (which should include east M'sia natives). Based on this, they will make their judgement. This way,all races are given a fair representation in the selection process, and the best will then be selected regardless of race!

I think most smart people would have understood this from yesterday's post, but we decided to make noise because of the way the add was posted, which isnt very wrong either :)!

Frank&Honest,

I enjoy reading your comments most of the time, but i believe this time you have rather overreacted.

You are giving the MMU admin far too much credit, i doubt the director who posted that response meant any malice, she probably didn't even realise that it was arrogant in any way.

You know how it is with administrators in Malaysia, most of them are halfwits who wouldn't have made it in any other field.

Just chill our will ya.

goks

Didn't exactly get what you are driving at.

The point I want to know is this: Does the clarification by the Director Nik Zaitun show or indicate that MMU has taken responsibility and apologise for the bungling? That is the issue.

If not,is it arrogance on the part of Director Nik Zaitun or is it due to poor command of his/her English language?

w4t3v4

I have to agree with you that I do give the directors the benefit of the doubt. I would hesitate to call them halfwits until they prove that themselves.

i understand frank intention when he posted comments,i appreciate his commitment to the issues,but maybe the way he voiced out his ideas is not what malaysian can accept.words like fools,idiot and bashing an organization because of something internal is not what i think malaysian can accept that easily.:)

"Take note that Motorola was concerned that they did not receive a good spread of applicants and wanted the names of qualified Indian and Bumi students to be given to them.

An Officer of the Admission and Scholarship Division, has, out of his own accord, advertised it the way he did, rather than obtained the list of qualified Indian and Bumi students through the University’s record."

Hmmm... just wondering - wouldn't it have constituted a breach of confidentiality for the uni to submit to Motorola the names or records of students who did not in fact apply for the scholarship?

If so, I doubt that Motorola would have overlooked this.

(Slight off-topic, but nonetheless quite relevant to this thread I hope)

I think this is a serious matter concerning the reputation of Moto. I did emailed to the corporate office earlier, together with a link to Jeff's site. The US corporate office informed me they will soon carryout an investigation.

I also find the MMU statements a bit weird. I hope the motorolans read that and correspond with Jeff. Jeff, I hope you publish if further clarifications is on the way.

Obviously, MMU was doing some "taichi" and push the ball back to motorola. I hope Ms Chan Lai Ngoh say something instead of the readers here speculate and hurt the situation further.

I'm also hoping the corporate will give enough pressure to moto-penang to do some solid actions instead of telling the public they do not endorse it and were not aware of it. Personally I think that is pure negligence.

Thanks for the space, Jeff.

Why is it so hard to admit you DONE WRONG and YOU ARE SORRY?

What this incident merely proves is that there is a need for check-&-balance and accountability. ALL corporate sponsors of scholarships for students in Malaysian universities, and not just Motorola, need to be fully aware about how their scholarships are being advertised and not just wholly "sub-contract" the handling of the publicity and applications to the universities themselves. They have to maintain some oversight over the entire process and not just dole out the money to anybody.

I am reading this from almost half the world away from Malaysia. It is really sad to have known that such issue had taken place in the Uni. which I graduated from.

Personally I am viewing this as a racism issue, which shouldn’t have had taken place at all; may it be accidental or not. Nik Zaitun's explanations are something which I cannot accept...on the part that MOTO did not obtain a good spread of applicants from various race background is totally ridiculous. Why? Simply because the whole system of selection should not have been race based at all in the first place! I remembered pretty well we were given student IDs…why can’t MMU just filter out students who score more than CGPA 3.0 within their records? I bet a self proclaimed “world class university” like MMU should be able to do this simple task. Oh yes, also note that the filtering should also be done without the race, gender and age option checked.

From the announcement made by Nik Zaitun, it sounds like she’s made an apology. However, at such magnitude, I don’t think it is really enough for her to just post the announcement up just within the cyber-walls of MMU’s bulletin board. I have a few questions that keep on ringing thru my mind:

1. Who is the real culprit who posted the scholarship notice?
2. Is this announcement made with endorsement from MOTO (on the fact that MOTO actually wished to obtain a more balanced and well spread database of applicants)?

As far as I am concern, the general staffing system in Malaysian is an open discrimination system. In all ways including race, age, gender and even your looks! Otherwise why would you have to fill up application forms that have the column that specifically require you to pen down such details (and also your looks on a passport size photo)? Well of course we cant do much about this since its being practiced almost in every corporate body and also MNC operating in Malaysia (including MOTO I assume – correct me if I am wrong Goks).

And to those students of MMU who can’t handle taking criticisms thrown at their Uni. – My advice to you guys would be just 2 words: “grow up”. Why is the reason you would wanna defend such a racist event, or ask people to just “chill” and play it down? Is it because you can’t take it because you are too proud being a member of the Uni.? Or is it because of some other personal issues? You ought to be clear of what is wrong and what is right – and please don't succumb to the “tidak apa” or “chill la brader” attitude. It is not gonna bring you anywhere. The world out here is not as forgiving as the incubation chamber you are in right now. It’s even a bigger shame to see how some of you students in MMU are actually circulating Yahoo Msger. Offline Messages asking the Chinese community not to make a big huh hah out of this.

Hmmm.. from the basic search that I have done (with the help of mighty google as always), she (refered to as he above) is the top management comittee of MMU ( http://www.mmu.edu.my/v4/main/main.php?g=1&i=2&f=topmanage.html ).

It is quite impossible her command of english is average (suppose to be excellent). Plus she is also "Director, Human Resources / Legal (HR/Legal)". That is an astounding position for such a person. It makes us wonder, whether is it she, or the one who make the reply is just the asisstant manager.

Other things about her online:
Video (her speech) - http://media.mmu.edu.my/gong/video.cgi

Her department website, done by the asistant manager (not sure, she is the current or not) - http://pesona.mmu.edu.my/~azniyati/

And Azni the Asst. Manager sells flower too?? Side job?? is it in the job description. Did it become her KPI too increase income for the department or what?

Nik Zaitun email is on the unofficial department website.

In my humble opinion it might be the clerk who drafted the "sensational" announcement. :D

goks;

For your information, Abdul Wahab was my boss. During my time in R&D, the group leader was PB Teo, and KC Ong. The staff engineers at the time was SL Chan, and another chinese guy. I was from Motorola R&D Penang and proud to be a Motorolan.

Motorola is trying very hard to have a diversified workforce, this I am sure.

"Once a Motorolan always a Motorolan."

Ken Watanabe, goks, hazremi , etc : If such "tidak apa" mentality sustain , do you think Malaysia will gain the independents 48 years ago?

Think twice!

moo_t,

Wake up moo_t ! If such "tidak apa" do not sustain, you will not have minister saying it is ok to drink the water that smell like shit or it is ok with the falling bridge (MIIR2).

The Malaysia mentality at 48 years ago is very different from what we are today.

Nobody thanked motorola for investing in this country, provided jobs for thousands and scholarships for hundreds.I will be the first one. Thanks motorola.

I do think that MMU should respond to Screenshots too. They *are* aware of the website and its readership, as the last time my letter ('First World' Mentality... MMU (8)) was posted, within the same day I got a personal phone call from MMU asking me if I wrote the letter, and asked that the letter to be removed because it is "causing a chain of other complaints from students and it's bad publicity". So MMU if you really take your public reputation so seriously, just email Jeff. Jeff has stated that any replies from MMU to clarify the matter will be published. I agree with the other readers, why hide behind the Online Bulletin Board when you can clarify this matter instantly at the source? It seems rather irresponsible and ignorant to me.

And to MMU students who are asking people to stop picking at your lovely uni, all I have to say is Happy Birthday Sweet 16! Let's talk again when you've grown up.

frank&honest,

you are, quite literally, spitting to the sky... why criticize mmu? don't you know that mmu is perhaps the only gov-link entity that is controlled by "your people"...?

take a look at the staff lists of a few faculties, then tell me what you think:

http://foe.mmu.edu.my/main/staff/staff_position.html

http://fit.mmu.edu.my/staffpage/staffmain.php

http://fet.mmu.edu.my/v4/staff/staff_dir.htm

http://fist.mmu.edu.my/staff_edit1.asp?pos_bound=1

to avoid suspicions, "your people" are obliged to hire "harmless" bumiputeras (meaning they are so stupid there is no way they can challenge "your people"'s dominance in mmu), usually to occupy the least-desirable positions (clerks, secretaries, technicians, etc.). smart bumiputeras already left mmu in droves...

but when you hire stupid people, stupid things happen. so don't complain...

Frank&Honest's so-called "over reaction" adds the alternative view to the mainstream opinions that should not have come about unchallenged. I have no problem with that. Furthermore, we preach about freedom of speech and freedom to be heard. That is exactly what Frank is practicing.

Just because you do not like what he said about certain institutions that you favor, and you label Frank a racist or extremist, good luck to you. Have a happy life.

I do not agree with Frank's comments at times, but I respect him as an individual with a thought different from mine. And so far Frank has not proven himself to not accept logical reasoning. his choice of words might not be favored by many, but what the heck, that is his conscious choice just like I counsciously favor wearing boxers over briefs. You do not like my boxers? ouch.. that really hurts. Yeah right. :-)

I am disappointed by how this issue has grown so out of hand. Let's review.

1. there is 1 notice in MMU online bulletin board stating that Motorola is offering scholarship to specific student from specific course and race.
i) people starts bashing MMU as a whole
ii) people focuses on the race requirement
iii) people emailed Motorola management about this issue
iv) Motorola emailed clarification to jeff, people accepted it; MMU posted clarification in their online bulletin board, but people still bash MMU.

so, can i do an analysis?
i) at that (starting) point of time, we have yet to know who provided the requirement, 4 entities are in suspection: Motorola, the company; Multimedia University, the uni; officer in Motorola in charge in handling the scholarship; officer in MMU, the bulletin poster. accusations and curse words flew all over the sky on Motorola (at first), then MMU. Little was pointing to the officer in MMU, none to the officer in Motorola. People started assuming who's the culprit (mainly targetted to MMU, the uni, rather than individuals). my conclusion: people generalize, people made their own conclusion, accordance to their mind, not evidence (at this point, not really much evidence was put on the table)

ii) no one bother how specific the requirements were. they want the exact course/year/semester/race/result of the recipient. but the focus was on the race(understandably). But, do we even explore the reason why such specific requirements? why not electrical engineering students? why not final year students? All we see was race. It's like an automation in our mind: racist, racist, racist

iii) people asked/emailed motorola (the company, not individual who is involved in coresponding with MMU). Though the person asked was not the direct person in charged of this issue, everyone accepted it. But when the same thing happened for MMU(the uni), everyone rejected their reason. looks like MMU really has a bad reputation.

but it's beyond me why no one question that this requirement might come from the officer in Motorola (individual, not the company) to MMU(individual, not the uni)? Since motorola has equal opportunity policy, so Motorola employee will surely follows it, no foul play could even exist? Why it's 'for sure' MMU(the uni) fault rather than exporing the possibility that it's the individual's (both person-in-charge from Motorola and MMU)?

It's always so much easier for us to blame the big name, rather than looking deeper.

Just as a company has a right to advertise only job positions it requires, it also has a right to offer scholarship programmes to only students who will graduate with the qualifications of interest to them.

In this case, Motorola is probably predicting a shortage of mechanical/software engineers in the near future, which is why they're only offering to sponsor the relevant students (in the hope that they will fill in the vacancies in the company when they graduate perhaps).

It's also worth noting that, as mentioned before, companies do not owe us scholarships. Scholarships are offered by grace.

Folks

Let's focus on MMU's "clarification", a writeup which is not an admission of fault, rather blaming a junior staff, and let me know what you think. I have given my views what I think and my interpretation of what the clarification was trying to imply.

MOTOROLA has made its positon clear and we should respect that.And its good to know that MOTOROLA will conduct its own internal investigation on how it got itself wrapped into this embarrassing situation. We should for a moment, leave MOTOROLA alone now... they have work to do to sort this mess which they unwittingly got themselves into.

Please, let me hear your views on MMU's clarification. Are you satifisfied? Because I am not.

I guess MMU is taking quite a "bashing" at the moment because of the speed and manner of their response.

Much of the outcry regarding this incident has come from the public (people ouside MMU), so it does seem strange that the uni would issue a response via their internal bulletin board rather than publicly.

I'm sure Jeff has contacted MMU regarding the matter, but the fact that he hasn't published anything on that yet suggests that he has yet to receive a response from them.

JEFF OOI says: A fellow blogger, which graduated from MMU and knows the MMU President, has been coordinating for a response right from Day 1 this blog topic went out. Nothing offcial has been forthcoming thus far.

The response on the bulletin board also doesn't sound particularly credible - I doubt Motorola would have overlooked the breach in confidentiality by asking the Scholarship Division to hand over names to them. Allowing an admin to post an advertisement "out of his own accord" is one wrong, but allowing an admin to hand over to another company the names (and presumably details for contact purposes) of students who didn't apply for the scholarship is another (correct me if I'm wrong).

frank&honest,

you are, quite literally, spitting to the sky... why criticize mmu? don't you know that mmu is perhaps the only gov-link entity that is controlled by "your people"...?

take a look at the staff lists of a few faculties, then tell me what you think:

http://foe.mmu.edu.my/main/staff/staff_position.html

http://fit.mmu.edu.my/staffpage/staffmain.php

http://fet.mmu.edu.my/v4/staff/staff_dir.htm

http://fist.mmu.edu.my/staff_edit1.asp?pos_bound=1

to avoid suspicions, "your people" are obliged to hire "harmless" bumiputeras (meaning they are so stupid there is no way they can challenge "your people"'s dominance in mmu), usually to occupy the least-desirable positions (clerks, secretaries, technicians, etc.). smart bumiputeras already left mmu in droves...

but when you hire stupid people, stupid things happen. so don't complain...

weixuan, good points. You sounds upset, I hope not because you love the MMU. I hope all MMU graduates don't take this personal. You all are great people, it's the discrimination practice that we are against, not you.

weixua, what you said, that's exactly what's Nik Zaitun, the director did. She held the individual, the officer wholly responsible. MMU is clear, she is sinless as far as the notice is concern. Probably the officer is the blacksheep. but do you think that will solve the problem?

If MMU sack this officer, she will get another officer, with the same culture, will MAL-PRACTICE happen AGAIN?

I personally do not want to see the individuals get sacked, that will not solve the issue. It has to be resovled from the top, the Director, the President, the company. If the officer posted something completely differently from what motorola's person in charge meant, then there is a serious communication problem between the two. Now, why didn't that post edited or approved by his superior first? Why is he given the authority to publish without being edited? Why didn't he seek Motorola's approval first before publishing? The forum is PUBLIC, discrimination in scholarship is a serious issue. Obviously, there's some procedural problem within the company and maybe between the companies, right?

If you just speak to the person-in-charge the only thing that will happen is the post get removed, case closed, but NOT SOLVED. The COMPANY has all the power, within its own discretion, to alter the procedure so that next time the same mistake will not occur. That's what we want. That's why this has to be brought to the attention of the top person and the company.

Your analysis raised some points brought to my attention. Have you thought of why the officer and/or the person in charge wanted to do that? What benefit will they get by stating specific race? He / they are just "makan gaji". What course what year doesn't matter because the real issue is discrimination against race. Frankly, I trust Motorola, the company, more than MMU. Solely because of Motorola's transparency and their policy. What is MMU human rights policy, I don't see any on their website? On the surface, it's equal opportunity, but in practice ....(sigh).... Now, if you think carefully enough, wouldn't you agree if the university (MMU) does not discriminate, why would the officer wanted to publish something like that on the net? I think this confirmed your analysis (iii) why people bash MMU more than motorola.

Now, if what was publish by the officer really comes from the instruction of the person-in-charge of Motorola, they that person is seriously in trouble because I've requested an investigation to be done at the corporate site. I hope they (the corporate) meant what they said.

Generally I think we all want a better malaysia. We love all tertiary institutions in Malaysia, that's why we want to keep an eye on them so that their name is not degraded. Furthermore, we are just 14 years towards wawasan 2020. And we are talking about globalisation, world-class universities, developed nation. If we, the nation, everytime see this and say, "aiya what's the big fuss, then sweep under the carpet", the chance is by 2020, we will still be arguing about race issue like this. This is a process we HAVE TO go through, no matter how ugly we sound. If we do not voice out, who will?

streetz

Excellent analysis.

I don't think I can do any better than that.

Syabas and thanks

If a university cannot even get its basic English correct, what future does it hold for its students?

Expired Date? What on earth is that? This is found on both the original offensive ad and in the above so-called "apology".

How on earth can a date expire? Maybe those found on a palm tree when it falls to the ground and get trampled upon. Hello, Nik Zaitun, if you are reading this, please change your website to Expiry Date.

At least for the orignal ad, the expiry date is required to remind candidates to apply early.

But for the apology to also carry an expiry date? Notice that it was posted on 19 April with an Expired Date of 23 April. So guys, please celebrate your "victory" now while it lasts - the non-apology is going to expire in 3 days.

http://siva-my.jobstreet.com/_ads/my/jobs/2006/3/m/10/259043.htm

"
Eligibility:

* Pursuing Degree in Engineering (E&E/ Mechanical/ Material/Software)
* 2nd, 3rd year student
* CGPA 3.0 and above (upon 4.0)
* Malaysian citizen
* Not holding any Scholarship by other company/ organization/ JPA (PTPTN loan is allowed)
* Bumiputeras are encouraged to apply.
"

there's already a hint of racism here. Aren't Malaysian citizen covers bumi and non-bumi? why another criteria to 'encourage' applications from bumis?

found this ad in jobstreet. Might be the same scholarship that the one offered in the said bulletin news. noted that in the ad:

# Please send your resume (stated CGPA upon 4.0 or Grade in your resume) and Degree Transcript to talent.my@motorola.com latest by 14-Mar-06 before 12:00noon.
# Short listed candidates will be required to attend an interview at Motorola Penang on Saturday, 25-March-2006.

obviously this has just passed. the company might just be in the process of finalizing the list of recipients.

would there be a possibility that in the attempt of trying to "diversify" the recipients of the scholarships, this whole drama happens?

since officially Motorola has this equal opportunity policy, we wouldn't know, would we?

p/s: no, there's no fact here. just some observations and sacarcism. I watched too much TV to come up with such conspiracy theory >.

Folks

I fear this topic might fall off from the radar screen on Jeff's blog as new topics are introduced, while we have fully get an sufficient response from MMU. MMU has not even come out public except on its unsatisfactory "clarification" on line website.

Unresolved sensitive issue which affects MOTOROLA directly and to concerned members ofthe Malaysian public.

Need to find a way to keep this matter on the radar screen until a satisfactory PUBLIC response from MMU is obtained.

Any ideas, folks?

dear weixuan,

at least it doesn't blatantly say "race: bumiputera only", or "only bumiputera need apply", or "non-bumiputera are NOT encouraged to apply" ;)

thewrathofgrapes,its funny to see ur comment since u're showing how fool u are, how about u click on this link http://bulletin.mmu.edu.my/v3/view/bulletin_main.mmu?s=34594&by=today and see whether got expired date or not.this expired date is to identify when an announcement is deleted from the bulletin board. and please dont judge the book by its cover,that show how fools you are.anyway i'm not gonna bash ur university since i'm not like u.

hazremi,

looks like u need to go back to your english 101. i clicked on the bulletin URL u gave and i noticed the expired date statement there, FYI that should read expiry date, not expired date la. U poor thing, seems that u have been exposed to so much broken english that u don't know what's right or wrong already. Peace!

seeker,dont interfere in my matters.i just want to prove the expired date is for expiry purposes from bulletin board database.i'm not to prove that i have band 6 muet here.u fool

Hazremi,

First please let me say, I am not tryign to start anythign with you at all, just highlighting a tiny issue, Seeker is correct on the part about expired date vs expiry date. Expiry date is the correct format that shlould be used. There are an awful lot of mistakes made here in Malaysia on the correct spelling of English words or what words to use and many are also done at Universities. Please do nto be offended, I am just stating a truth, you can even check it out on google and yahoo as well.

I have just read this post and its comments.

MMU should act professionally and issue a proper apology. The statement on its online bulletin board is unacceptable. It is a university that educates our future generations – it must be a good role model.

This is an opportunity for MMU to educate its students on how to handle damage control.

To apologize does not bring ridicule – in fact it brings respect. This is proven by the way Motorola communicated its apology.

The students who are defending MMU in this blog should learn to take criticisms bravely and with self-discipline. You learn less when you are praised, but you learn more when you are criticised.

MMU should improve its English usage. Respond to our comments in a dignified way, and you will earn our respect.

Folks

I still feel we should keep this topic and issue alive on Jeff's blog until MMU comes clean on this fiasco. MMU is not taking responsibility for the damage done, and instead insinuates that it MOTOROLA which cause the embarrassment.

I wonder what can Jeff do about keeping this alive.. my fear is that as new topics are introduced, by virtue of the blog infrastructure, this topic goes to the bottom of the screen and eventually disappears, including disappearing from our attention.

I think MMU is actually that will be so, so they can get away scot free while MOTOROLA took the brunt until it came out with its statement yesterday.

Just a quickie to let you guys know that this issue is in the Sun today (Friday 21 Apr), page 2 under the title "Furore over ad with race requirement". Have fun!

pOts

Does the SUN have an online version which I can download?

If there is, what's the link?

thanks

Frank&Honest: check out www.sun2surf.com for a exact copy of the physical paper, sign up for a free e-Paper account.

I recall in the thread someways back someone was saying that the MMU students aren't complaining. That's wrong, they are, but they're too afraid to openly comment on racial issues in MMU. Instead they adopt anonymous nicknames and take to the internet. Sheesh, that place sounds like Orwell's 1984. *shudders*

Sorry for double posting - this just occurred to me.

I'm sure MMU and Motorola sent statement to all the papers. But I've just scanned every single one and the story's utterly panned by all but theSun - who put it up front on Page 2. Why do you think the other papers ignored it?

F&H - free The Sun ePaper:

http://epaper.sun2surf.com/main.asp?selPg=842&page=21_04_2006_003.JPG&page1=21_04_2006_004.JPG

You have to register. Go to the link below and click theSun FREE e-paper.

http://www.thesundaily.com/index.cfm

TheWrathOfGrapes and ajiwen

Thanks guys. Very much appreciated.

One of the beauties of blogs... you get instant help from cyberspace, from those you don't know who they are.

ajiwen

You ask....Why do you think the other papers ignored it?

The short and truthful answer?

Other papers are owned by political parties runnin the present Govt:

NST by UMNO
Star by MCA.
MIC ... ???

of course the vernacular papers especially the Malay language papers by UMNO.

Send to Harakah, they will publish but our Govt discourages you to read Harakah. They even ban it at one time.

Damn! This is what you get for not checking out jeffooi.com daily. You miss out on so much insight and meaningful discussion. I was being sarcastic *Reminder to self - Read Jeff Ooi everyday*

My 2 pennies worth,
Racism is bad, period. No defending it in any way. However it is a way of life in Malaysia. Should we accept it? No. However what we can do is quite limited. Legislation exists to ensure that there is inequality, and that it remains this way. The rest of us who don't benefit from the inequality, well tough. Live with it.

The thing about scholarships is that it should either help the poor or reward the deserving. In the first, if someone earns below RM XXXX per month, then he/she deserves the scholarship, regardless of race. Or, if someone has 4As, then he/she deserves the scholarship, regardless of race. See the pattern here?

I can't speak for Motorola, but it seems entirely plausible that MMU screwed up big time over this. Put the blame on some over-zealous junior officer if you must, but we know that it comes right from the top. There is a good chance it was deliberate in the hope of avoiding the radar of public opinion. But what to do? Inherent, legislated, state sanctioned racism, pure and simple.

Malaysia Boleh.

hann,

Agree with you on the "regardless of race" bit. But I think it is better to make a distinction and have 2 different awards - scholarships and bursaries. Both should be given regardless of race.

Scholarships should be given based on merit and whatever criteria that are public announced as constituting talent. It should given to deserving candidates meeting those requirements, regardless of race.

Then we have the bursaries which should be given to family with household income not exceeding RMxxx a month, again regardless of race.

What a shame, what a shame.