Malay girl's brilliance in Virginia shatters Bersatu man's claim By Martin Vengadesan

Irdina Shahriman

Korkor : Whether you like it or not, the rot is very deeply entrenched into society that even young ones are having a very reserved thinking on their other race Malaysians. I had on an occasion stopped a delivery guy (youngster) from entering a lift to our condo for his delivery because he didnt wear a face mask. I asked him to wear a face mask but he refused and insisted on getting into the lift.

When I stopped him further, the 1st word from his mouth was "Chixa Babi". The whole episode has NO racial preference but this guy chose to shout out such racial words. What does that mean??? I just wonder how is our country going to progress harmoniously when we have people with very sick minded and with minds so deeply entrenched of racial hatred?

Malaysiakini : COMMENT | I came to journalism via a circuitous route. In August 1990, at the age of 17, I was actually a JPA scholar with a place to study engineering at Virginia Tech, then ranked in the 30-40 bracket in the world for engineering programmes.

It was a major leap compared to school, where I had largely gotten by without doing my homework or much studying. Suddenly I found myself in a very competitive environment and unable to cope with the steep learning curve. The assumption was that I would be good at engineering because I had scored well in Maths, Add Maths and Physics. But I was not.

I eventually transferred out of the programme and did not complete any degree from that university which I left in 1992.

That's why I was all the more impressed by the achievements of Irdina Shahriman, who consistently achieved a 4.0 cumulative grade point average (CGPA) as an Electrical Engineering undergraduate at Virginia Tech from 2018 to 2021.

She ranked first among almost 10,000 students, bagging the Phi Kappa Phi medallion for the College of Engineering – an award which is conferred on the graduating senior with the highest academic standing.

Read it all here...............