IT is noteworthy that even critics of Dr Maszlee Malik would mention amendments to the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 (UUCA) and related statutes on the list of achievements, short it may be to many, of Maszlee as education minister.

After almost five decades, amendments to the UUCA and two related acts,  initiated and tabled by Maszlee, were passed in the Dewan Rakyat in December 2018, paving the way for full repeal of the UUCA this year.

The two other acts are the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act 1996 and the Educational Institutions (Discipline) Act 1976. All three amendments to the acts were short and simple. Each amendment deleted the provision that students “shall not be involved in political party activities within the campus”, thus ending a ban on students of higher education institutions from being involved in political parties on campus.

Importantly also, each amendment provided that all disciplinary actions against any student relating to his or her involvement in political activities on campus which were pending before the University’s disciplinary authority immediately before the amendment shall, on the date of coming into operation of the amendment, be discontinued. 

Although there were assurances from the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government that the law would be abolished, the amendment rather than the repeal of the UUCA and the related statutes was much welcomed by many, at least among academics if not the students, notably activists from the Gabungan Pembebasan Akademik (GPA), even though it had demanded a repeal.

Many who applauded and supported the amendments understood that repealing the law would take time as it would need to be replaced by another law. Universities, like other legal entities such as societies, cooperatives and companies, need to be run and governed by the law. 

The UUCA itself was two years in the making following the May 13, 1969. Dr Chang D-Wan of the National Higher Education Research Institute, Universiti Sains Malaysia, calls the fateful day “a watershed moment in Malaysian higher education. Following the racial riot, universities fell under the Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance No. 74 in 1971 and subsequently the UUCA, which replaced the Ordinance.

So, the amendments were important first steps. At least, they showed the political will of the man, who took upon himself to table the amendments. Maszlee, too, had informed the public that a committee to draft the new law was on the right track to replace the UUCA in 2020.

By comparison, more draconian provisions of the law in Malaysia, much promised and assured by the PH government to be abolished or amended, have continued to be in the statute books, not repealed nor amended.  Such provisions include the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma), which was recently enforced by the police and prosecutors alike.

So, while students of higher education institutions were liberated from oppressive campus bans and disciplinary action, at least 12 individuals were, and continue to be, deprived of their personal liberties.

It is perhaps not surprising that Khairy Jamaluddin commented to Maslee upon finding out his resignation that there are other ministers who deserve to go. 

I do not know Maszlee and I have not had the privilege of meeting him. But as an academic, my sense of him was that he remained true to his academic training.

It’s like a former player who is the manager of a football club. It’s not a guarantee of success but the list of successful footballers-turned-managers counts at least twenty and growing, if the likes of Solkjear (Manchester United) and Mikel Arteta (Arsenal) succeed.

It is perhaps also not surprising that the Malaysian Academic Association Congress (Maac) has stood up for Maszlee. The National Union of Teaching Profession (NUTP) too has come out in support of the former minister.

Maszlee has been described as “a good guy with good intentions”. If I were an Aussie and asked to respond, I would say “fair dinkum”. – January 5, 2020.

* Hafiz Hassan reads The Malaysian Insight.

* 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.