Why are UEC students being asked to jump through hoops?

Kua Kia Soong

The recent interventions by Dong Zong and commentator Eddin Khoo on the never-ending Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) controversy  are revealing – not because they advance the debate, but because they further expose how distorted and discriminatory the terms of discussion on UEC recognition have become.

After five decades of obstruction, the people are now told that UEC recognition may be “considered” if students submit to yet another set of political hurdles: an SPM (Year 11) exam distinction in the Malay language paper, additional tests in Malaysian history, or bespoke assessments devised to pacify racial anxieties. 

Let us be absolutely clear: UEC students are not performing poodles in the Malaysian education circus.

Not real recognition

Dong Zong’s reported “willingness” to consider an SPM distinction in Malay as a pathway to UEC recognition is being hailed by some as pragmatism.

It is not. It is capitulation to a racist premise. This is after the Dong Zong chairman said they will not beg!

No other pre-university qualification in Malaysia is subjected to such humiliating, ad hoc conditions. Cambridge, International Baccalaureate, Australian matriculation and American high school diplomas are recognised without demands for cultural loyalty tests.

To single out the UEC is to institutionalise the idea that Malaysian independent Chinese secondary school students are suspect Malaysians who must perpetually prove their worthiness.

The double standard becomes even more grotesque when we recall that there are more than 150,000 foreign students currently enrolled in Malaysian tertiary institutions. They are not required to obtain SPM distinctions or even credits in Malay. They are not tested in Malaysian history for entry.

Yet Malaysian citizens holding the UEC are told they must do more than foreigners to access their own public institutions.

Even Malaysian citizens entering public universities through SPM, matriculation or other recognised pathways are required only to pass or obtain a credit in Malay – not a distinction. Since when did the UEC suddenly become subject to a higher, punitive standard?

This is not about national language proficiency. It is about disciplining one community through selective barriers whilst pretending it is policy coherence.

Humiliation as policy

Eddin Khoo’s proposal that UEC graduates sit additional tests in history and the Malay language for university admission is dressed up as ‘reasonableness’. In reality, it entrenches discrimination by making humiliation a condition of access.

One must ask the obvious question: did Eddin Khoo himself have to pass tests in English and British history when he entered a British university?

If not – and we all know the answer – on what moral or intellectual basis does he now demand that Malaysian UEC students be subjected to indignities that no Western university would impose on foreign entrants?

British universities assess academic competence, not cultural obedience. They do not require applicants to perform symbolic acts of submission.

Why should Malaysia, in the name of ‘nation-building’, demand less dignity for its own citizens than former colonial institutions extended to theirs?

The MQA question

Both Dong Zong’s concession and Khoo’s proposal carefully sidestep the central question: why has the Malaysian Qualifications Agency never published a professional audit of the UEC?

The answer remains unchanged after 40 years: because a transparent academic assessment would expose the political fraud at the heart of this debate. Once professional standards replace racial anxiety, the entire circus collapses.

No number of conditional pathways, bridging rituals or loyalty tests can substitute for a professional accreditation process honestly conducted and publicly disclosed.

Rights become bargaining chips

What we are witnessing is a systematic downgrading of rights into negotiable privileges.

UEC recognition is not a favour to be earned through endless concessions. It is about equal access to public institutions for citizens who pay taxes and contribute to the nation.

Once we accept the logic that one group of Malaysians must constantly prove their ‘Malaysian-ness’, structural discrimination becomes normalised – and shamefully defended.

How many hoops?

UEC students are not circus animals trained to jump through political hoops. They are Malaysians – multilingual, globally competitive and deliberately excluded not because of academic inadequacy, but because political cowardice still trumps moral courage.

So, stop inventing new obstacles. Stop offering conditional dignity. Stop disguising discrimination as compromise.

Recognise the UEC based on professional standards – now – or admit openly that this has never been about education, integration, or standards, but about preserving a race-based political order that no longer dares to justify itself honestly.

Dr Kua Kiang Soong, a former MP, is the director of human rights group Suaram.

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