UNIVERSITI Malaya (UM) used to be a beacon for progressive higher education. 

It had excellent top leadership such as the late royal professor Ungku Aziz and Syed Hussain Al-Atas, although, sadly, the latter was hard done by due to the politics of the period. 

It had fiery student leaders such as Anwar Ibrahim and world-class academics like Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Syed Husin Ali, and Edmund Terence Gomez. 

It had a vibrant speaker’s corner and a variety of strong student unions that prepared young adults for the world outside campus.

Its students and faculty stood right up there with the best in the world.

But not anymore. While UM is still regarded as Malaysia’s top university, that says more about the limitations of the other universities than it does of UM’s inherent quality.

The politicisation of Malaysia’s higher education system, including UM, since the 1970s, saw the rot rapidly setting in. This has been made worse by repressive laws like the UUCA and having technocrats and political toadies replace genuine scholars with a vision to helm education in Malaysia. 

The recent debacle at UM illustrates this sad situation. It was orientation week and the student union had organised a forum on freedom of speech on campus on October 13. Election Commission deputy chairman Dr Azmi Sharom and Umany president Wong Yan Ke were to have been the speakers. 

There was a complaint by the head of a politically affiliated student association. The complaint was against Wong, who has a case pending in court that was brought about by the UM authorities as an overreaction to his graduation day protest against the then UM vice-chancellor.

Based on this complaint, the authorities halted the forum, switched off the sound system and told the students – and Azmi – to leave the hall. Some of the organisers were taken in for questioning by campus security and their fate is still uncertain.

It is sad that such an overreaction could occur yet again in our “premier” university. 

But what Gerak finds pathetic is that not a single university staff union has come out to openly oppose the high-handed behaviour of the campus authorities. Nor have the professors’ councils. 

It is as if freedom of speech – and its corollary, academic freedom – or the plight of the students is deemed unimportant.

Gerak came out in support of Wong when the UM administrative juggernaut sought to crush him in 2019. 

We now support the UM student union that organised the forum. And we condemn in no uncertain terms the fascistic display of power by the UM authorities who have ignored rights and academic freedom. – October 16, 2022.

* Gerak is an association of Malaysian academics.
 

* 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.