WE in GERAK watched in horror this past week, as the first sitting of Parliament in a long time collapsed into a farcical demonstration of a regime clearly out of control and, worse, devoid of solutions for the many public health, economic, education and poverty problems we now face.

Now there’s talk about the end of this regime or, at least, the replacement of the few battered and wounded at the top by the equally battered and wounded from the next level. Just like scenes from a predictable and bad soap opera.

The Dewan Rakyat speaker, trained in law we are told, has clearly been out of his depth, impeding much-needed discussion and debate rather than facilitating them. We will not repeat the colourful description of this poor – but wealthy – man by opposition MP, Ramkarpal Singh.

Instead, we wish to highlight the recent plea and proposal on the sidelines of Parliament by the MP for Simpang Renggam and former education minister, Dr Maszlee Malik and the related comments by Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) committee member, Sharan Raj.  

For the duration of this pandemic, Maszlee has consistently provided proposals that address education problems that students, teachers and parents are facing due to this pandemic.

Needless to say, his proposals appear to have fallen on deaf ears. Indeed, we could say the same for any suggestions proposed by groups and individuals in Malaysia who are not part of the regime.

Both education ministries are no different and appear to have been provided some manual authorising them to act “bodoh sombong” (stupid but arrogant) when questioned and criticised.

Indeed, their stance reflects the proverbial hapless deer caught in the headlights of Malaysia’s most dire political crisis spawned by this pandemic. And yet they also behave like arrogant aristocrats who disdain being pushed for coherent policy responses.

GERAK’s stand, to be clear, is that the long-term survival and success of the higher education sector in Malaysia require structural and systemic reforms.

Nonetheless, we feel that with the present crisis, short-term solutions need to be considered to prevent the virtual destruction of the sector.

In this regard, we turn to Maszlee’s latest appeal for the regime to address the desperate situation private higher education is facing right now.

Essentially, while the pandemic has hit Malaysian higher education severely, it is the private higher education sector that appears to have been the most badly hit.

Pre-Covid-19 and pre-lockdown, this sector, according to reports, had more than 40% share of tertiary level students (530,000 students) in Malaysia, contributing more than RM30 billion to the country’s income in 2018.  

A very important sector for the country but it has needed assistance over the past year or so. Sadly, help, in a concerted, planned manner, evidently has not been forthcoming.

This pandemic and the ensuing crisis do really provide us with the opportunity to separate the wheat from the chaff.

There are “mushroom colleges”, as Raj aptly calls them – private higher education institutions set up to exploit the poorer public and provide education of dubious quality.

How they got accreditation in the first place only the authorities can explain. Offhand, the term “political crony” often enough crops up.

The point is that these dubious institutions should not be saved. But their students will need rescuing and locating them in the many public vocational colleges, as proposed by Raj, could be the answer.

The opportunity for a genuine qualitative assessment and much-needed pruning – and not political bailing out – of the private higher education sector can and must be taken by the authorities.

This must be done systematically and professionally, led by a team of genuine and independent academic experts, certainly not the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA), hindered by its own credibility issues.

Whether it is pruning, tax exemptions, a tax holiday, tuition fee subsidies or the transfer of academically qualified students to other public institutes of higher education, as have been proposed by both Maszlee and Raj, the Ministry of Higher Education must devise a workable rescue plan.

It hasn’t done so yet. Or at least nothing substantial has been announced and implemented.

The Ministry must come out of its deep slumber. It must stop mucking about, like playing politics with boardroom and other senior appointments to our public universities.

It needs to seriously address crucial issues of survival faced by all these institutions, especially the private ones; institutions that are supposed to help educate and prepare a post-pandemic generation.

Precious time has been wasted already, largely due to the ineptness of quite useless people at the very top of the ministry.

We really cannot afford such incompetence and indecisiveness anymore. Good proposals have been provided by people such as Maszlee and Sharan Raj.

We need the Ministry to seriously consider these proposals and plan and act wisely now. Not tomorrow, not next week, certainly not next year. – July 31, 2021.

* GERAK or Pergerakan Tenaga Akademik Malaysia is an association of Malaysian academics committed to educational reforms.

* 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.