USM should drop its apex status

When I was in standard 5 about 30 years ago, I was shortlisted by our art teacher to take part in a state level drawing competition. Quite a number of standard 4, 5 and 6 pupils were shortlisted. I was delighted and thus asking my mom to buy me a new set of water color. Very excited, anxious and proud, I practiced drawing almost every day. Coming close to the date of the competition, I was told by my classmates who were also shortlisted to wait at a bus stop in Arau town the next day so that the teacher could gather all contesters before taking a bus to Kangar, where the competition supposed to take place. 

The next day my dad sent me to the bus stop with his motorbike. Upon reaching the place, a few of my schoolmates and the art teacher were already there, cheerfully chit chatting with each other. When the teacher saw me, he looked confuse, sensing something was amiss. Apparently, I was not selected for the competition and was somehow wrongly informed by my classmate who was selected. I felt very embarrassing naturally. The teacher was equally embarrassing as he certainly overlooked and felt guilty for dissembling wrong information. He called a cab to send me home. As disappointed as I was, I felt very shameful especially to my mom who bought me a new set of water color. I asked the cab to stop some where a bit further from my house. I sat at a nearby paddy field for a couple of hours then only I walked home slowly. My mom asked me how was the competition, I bluffed her that it was suck, all other students were too good in drawing, and I won no prize. She consoled me, saying that it was ok if I had tried my best, unknowing that I could merely keep my tears from dropping. 

I sympathized with the students wrongly informed by USM that they were accepted but found out later that it was actually a bloody mistake made by the university administration which wrongly uploaded the name of all applicants instead of successful candidates. If that happened to me 20 years ago I would have sat down at the registration hall and cried, worrying how am I going to tell my parents, especially so with the whole neighborhood knew about it. The place I grew up was a small kampong anyway and going to the university was something that not as common as nowadays. Fortunately that wasn’t happening to me. UKM informed me my acceptance via a formal letter and I went for the registration without any hiccup. 

The frustrations of the affected students were inconsolable. The bloody blunder made by USM could also jeopardize the chances of the students to be taken by other universities. USM should drop its apex status voluntarily if it still has a sense of shamefulness.