Recently, Azhar claimed that the hijacking of the New Economic Policy (NEP) by the politically powerful had led to the creation of two kinds of Malays: the elite minority who keep getting richer and the poorer majority who are addicted to the policy.
He, however, stressed that he was not against affirmative action, adding that many advanced countries, including the United States, had implemented similar policies successfully.
In a Facebook posting today, Azhar, better known as Art Harun, pointed out that American political philosopher Michael J Sandel in his book “Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?” made several arguments in favour of affirmative action in the US, one of which was to “correct the testing gap”.
“A good affirmative action would take this so-called ‘testing gap’ into consideration,” Azhar said, before elaborating on why the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) in the US has come under much criticism.
“In America, the SAT has long been used as a measure to predict academic and career success. The SAT is thus used as a measure for admissions in universities, for example.
“However, studies have shown that black and Hispanic students can’t do very well in standardised tests. Social and even biological factors play substantial roles in shaping a person’s ability.
“A score of 75% for a certain subject by a person coming from a poor village and background may be worth more than a 85% score by a person who studies in a private school coming from a wealthier background.
“In this respect, not only does the economic background play a role in shaping the score, even the values of the families, the schools, the teachers and other intangible elements contribute to the score,” Azhar said.
He also cited the circumstances surrounding how Martin Luther King Jr was admitted to Boston University to do his doctorate despite having scored poorly in his Graduate Record Exam in 1951.
“Using the SAT, his application would have been rejected. Nevertheless, he was admitted. And he would become one of the world’s best orators in history.”
Art said a well-planned and executed affirmative action plan would benefit society as it could aid social engineering which would lead to a strengthening of the country by optimising the whole potential of the people and society at large.
“However, the rationale for and intention of the affirmative action must be right. The target group must be correctly identified and precisely defined. The execution or implementation must be strict.
“Sadly, in Malaysia, the narrative for or against affirmative actions have been emotional and political rather than anything else,” Art said, adding that as a result it is difficult to realise it here.