A MAJOR decision like allowing partisan politics in public universities has to be well-deliberated. Using excuses such as encouraging students’ freedom of expression, or simply because foreign universities allow it, is simply flimsy.

There is a vast difference between allowing political activities and partisan politics in universities. Students should be encouraged to participate in political discourse, organise forums and debates, and invite politicians to speak on campuses. The advantages are understood. However, partisan politics is totally different.

A party branch or club is an extension of a political party, and therefore, it is necessary for its members/students to show a biased and emotional allegiance.

Looking at issues, including politics, objectively, without bias, is an important criterion for clarity of thought and knowledge foundation in academia. Learning to discern between merits and demerits, fair reporting and propaganda, facts and half-truths, is essential for a student to mature and advance intellectually. On the other hand, being ushered into a situation of being biased in the very raw late teens is entrapping oneself into one-track thinking and intellectual profanity. Besides, student partisan groups can be manipulated easily, used as tools in cunning political manoeuvres and the lobbying of positions.

Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik’s statement that “students are free to be political and can offer themselves to be candidates” is more rhetoric to gain popularity than the reality on the demand of an elected politician. One has to have the attributes and qualities of a good leader, besides diligence, wisdom and time for the unending loads of party activism and campaigning.

The minister is wise not to plant false hope and delusion when the preoccupation of students should be first to learn to speak and write well, and gain knowledge.

Rather than being so gung-ho to allow our university students to participate in partisan politics, in the light of the current widespread criticism of our education system, emphasis should be on raising the standard of teaching, and stemming plagiarism among students and academic staff.

A major factor contributing to the problems with our education system is the language transition from Bahasa Malaysia at the primary and secondary levels to English at the university level. Our students struggle to write in English for assignments, exams, dissertations and journal articles for publication. Academic staff themselves face this predicament, too. Having a poor command of English sows the seeds for plagiarism, taking others’ work and passing it as one’s own without giving acknowledgment to the original author. Outsourced article writing has also become common.

Both plagiarism and outsourced article writing have become a major problem and an unsurprising phenomenon in our higher education system, even though the problem is not publicly acknowledged.

If publication in good-quality international journals is what we aspire to, then the focus has to start with aiming for a better command of the English language. Students have to learn to write good simple essays. Next is to learn the format required for academic writing, such as abstract, introduction, discussion and conclusion. References and citations are essential. Lecturers have to mark the assignments well, to impart good-quality teaching. No student can produce good academic and scientific papers in their later years without first being well-guided at the bachelor’s and master’s levels.

A poor command of language, poor grasp of the core subject matter, and teaching by merely reading from available scripts and slides are among the problems with our university lecturers. Low-quality teaching produces weak students. Poorly guided students find shortcuts in their writing assignments, and resort to plagiarising the work of others or outsourcing their work. If lecturers themselves are poor in their own knowledge capacity and writings, then they cannot produce good students.

Referencing in academic writing is very important, and students have to learn it well, early in their academic years. Learning to cite well when paraphrasing others’ writings is crucial to avoid plagiarism. We have universities that do not even have a fixed referencing style for their students, indicating an irresponsible neglect of the basic need to write properly. It goes to show that academic writing is not taken seriously. The unfortunate outcome is rampant plagiarism, an unpardonable academic sin.

An education system that trains people to cheat, even though unintentionally, has to be reformed. Plagiarism cannot be ignored any further. Plagiarism connotes bad values and has wide ramifications in our society and nation. Leaders and those holding key positions in both the public and private sectors who had learnt to cheat as students will likely condone cheating later in their career.

A serious effort has to be undertaken to help our university students become achievers academically and intellectually. Not moonlighting in partisan politics. – November 8, 2018.

* Captain Dr Wong Ang Peng is a researcher with an interest in economics, politics, and health issues. He has a burning desire to do anything within his means to promote national harmony. Captain Wong is also a member of the National Patriots Association.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.