THREE student-organised events in Universiti Malaya this year have shown how academic freedom – a core promise of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration – has become a double-edged sword.

On paper, students now have more freedom to form associations and get involved in politics, but in reality, they are stifled from fully using those liberties.

This is because university managements also now have greater autonomy over how they run their institutions and they have used that freedom to deny students their liberty.

So while the Education Ministry celebrated increasing academic freedom in its report yesterday, students told The Malaysian Insight that those liberties are still under threat.

This year, the UM student union claimed that the university’s management had threatened their freedom to hold intellectual talks with opposition politicians and foreign activists.

UM student union president Mohd Akmal Hazieq Ahmad Rumaizi said the university’s management had asked them to cancel invitations to Umno deputy president Mohamad Hassan and PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang.

Last month, the management had also wanted them to cancel an event with Hong Kong and Taiwanese activists who were invited to talk about the political movements in those territories.

“In all three cases we were warned against inviting these speakers. But we went ahead and held these events anyway,” said Akmal Hazieq.

“We told the university these are freedoms the government gave us and the management cannot deny us the chance to hold our own programmes as long as they do not break the law or violate the constitution.”

However, the union was issued with a show cause letter from the student affairs department (HEP) for holding the event featuring the Hong Kong student activists.

“I have been told that other student associations at other public universities have also faced such problems when inviting opposition politicians and they were forced to cancel invitations. But the unions over here went ahead.”

New freedoms, old attitudes

Yesterday, Education Minister Maszlee Malik made public a report on his ministry’s 2019 achievement, which listed among others a greater commitment to academic freedom which had been stifled during the Barisan Nasional era.

The report pointed to 20 student elections held in public institutions while 17 of them held 237 forums, talks and exchanges involving thinkers and politicians from both the ruling coalition and opposition.

A few hours after the report was unveiled, UM students held a demonstration in front of their vice-chancellor’s office to demand better facilities and lower fees.

The protest, said Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) student leader Ray Ming, proved that there is more freedom under the PH administration compared to the BN era.

“If we did this during the BN era, we would have all been arrested by now,” said Ming, who was also at the UM students’ demonstration.

But Ming added that the freedom to protest was only meaningful if it helped improve students’ welfare.

UM’s Akmal Hazieq said the greater autonomy that university administrators also have made it challenging for students to press their demands.

“When we tell the ministry about our problems, the ministry tells us to go and negotiate with the administrators.

“But when we meet the administrators, they question whether we really represent all the students even though people like me were elected in student elections.”

Prof Zaharom Nain of Gerak, a group representing academics, said the snag in the system is that while students are now given more freedom, the actions that hinder them are still very much in place.

“They still have a deputy vice-chancellor in charge of student affairs who lords over student matters,” Zaharom told The Malaysian Insight.

“Gerak especially has asked for that post and department to be abolished. University students should not require a glorified (and expensive) head nanny heading a whole gang of nannies.”

Banning opposition politicians from giving talks to students should not happen, Zaharom said, as open debates contribute to the formation of new knowledge and perspectives.

“For too long, open debates on our campuses have been stifled. Now, some space has opened up, hence the concerned parties must be mature and critical enough to move things forward and not simply let the ministry and/or university administrators decide what’s kosher for discussion.” – December 14, 2019.