This month is perhaps the most trying period in the young lives of Malaysians aged 16 to 17, given they are currently sitting for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM), or the Malaysian Certificate of Education examinations.

For many teenagers, these exams will determine the course of their life, even their life ambitions: can I be a doctor, or a pilot, or a researcher in tropical diseases? Such dreams will be shaped by these exams, given the next critical stage of their young lives – the path to university education – is decided by their SPM grades.

Over half a million students will be sitting the SPM, in a year where they have had to endure studying through a pandemic that’s crippled the usual modes of classroom education and social learning.

Given all this, one would think that society at large, including the state’s institutions, would be well aware of the mental stress being imposed on this young generation and their parents, and thus understand they have an obligation to assist them in all ways possible.

However, these stressors are just the tip of an iceberg. The larger truth is hidden under the superficially calm yet cruel waters, the silence of unseen forces gathered under the waterline. This iceberg is only getting larger with every passing year, and Malaysia is steering right for it.

This is the system of apartheid being inflicted upon even the children of this country, where the racial majority of Malaysia (termed Bumiputras) are given rights and privileges through affirmative action policies that the other racial groups – Malaysian-Chinese, Malaysian-Indian, and other minorities, including certain indigenous peoples – are not. It occurs at all the levels of the education system: an example is the 90 per cent quota for Bumiputras on the pre-university matriculation course for 16- to 17-year-olds, which almost guarantees a coveted placement at university – despite many of these students attaining average grades.