Below is a part of an article entitled Merit-based system politicised from the start: critics posted at Malaysiakini
‘Racial issue’

Umno Youth education bureau chief Dr Adham Baba was fast to point out the ‘dangers’ of debating over the ‘meritocracy’ issue.

“It seems the opposition is dragging it into becoming a racial issue, which we should avoid at all costs,” he told malaysiakini in an earlier interview. He said the opposition parties and the NGOs seemed to want to spoil the chances of bumiputra students from obtaining tertiary education.

He argued that many bumiputra students were also left out and could not get places with the ‘merit’ system. He urged those dissatisfied with the system to scrutinise the statistics carefully, particularly the success rate according to each ethnic group.

Out of 34,489 bumiputra applicants, 22,557 or 65 percent were successful. Out of 10,533 Chinese applicants, 8,665 or 82 percent gained entry. Out of 2,537 Indian applicants, 1,530 or 60 percent booked a spot.

“So, what is the issue?” asked Adham. “There are also those who applied but were not qualified in the first place. Why must the percentage be seen from the number of total applicants, while many [others] actually do not qualify?”

Adham said it was “not right” for certain quarters to be unhappy that an increasing number of bumiputra were able to enter university.

“Will those groups also complain if the number of non-bumiputra students was more [than before]?” he asked.

My comments
Dr.Adham is up to something, and had definitely done a lot of dig outs before he, confidently and dogmatically, expressed and challenged those who are disatisfied and disappointed by the "cover up" merit system. I must applaud and praise him also for his ability to give the exact statistical numbers and results to prove his points and even asked the public to scrutinise them! Well done Dr.Adham! But there are a few holes that he digged, he has forgotten to fill up, perhaps he was too inspired and triggered up at that moment...I don't blame him! In fact, Dr.Aham was not that greedy, he was so satisfied that he abandoned a few other loop holes. I, humbly, would like to ask Dr.Adham, out of the 82% Chinese who were successful, how many were actually offered the qualified and desired courses especially medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy? how many out of the 65% of the Malays who were successful, were actually qualified to be offered the desired courses, again especially medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy?