WE are 24 hours away from yet another eventful general election. The outdoor campaigning, by all accounts, has been rather subdued, at least from the Barisan Nasional-Perikatan National side.

The weather, of course, has not been helpful, drenching many supporters and preventing them from attending ceramah.

For BN, the relatively empty ceramah seem to now prove true that it was an ill-advised decision – despite the warnings and predictions – to dissolve parliament and hold a general election at the heart of the monsoon season.

This decision was made probably out of desperation. After all, its leaders needed to halt court cases – for money laundering, fraud and, simply, blatant plundering – even if temporarily.

Former prime minister Najib Razak of BN is already serving a sentence for corruption, having exhausted all avenues in a trial process characterised by the defence’s endless applications and excuses for delays.

There is also a sense of urgency from the opposition and its supporters as the nation has seldom seen the kind of crises that we are facing.

Having barely recovered from the pandemic, we are witnessing a resurgence of Covid-19 due to a highly infectious new strain of the virus.

The country is also facing spiralling inflation, shortages of certain essential food items, transport crises and other national challenges.

There is also the global effect of climate change, an existential crisis to humanity that no country on Earth can ignore.

It is within this serious context that we see some of the more enlightened segments of our society throwing themselves on the frontlines, to either voice their support for a particular political coalition or educate the public on the seriousness of the issues we face.

It is no surprise therefore that campuses have become passionate battle grounds for politics in a test of freedom of expression.

Across Malaysia over the past week or so, several campuses have put up flipboards for students to freely tack on their coloured stickers indicating support for one of the three major coalitions.

Several of these informal polls, like the more scientific carried out by professional pollsters, clearly show greater support for Pakatan Harapan (PH).

Next, an academic group, mainly retired public university professors and calling themselves Profesor Melayu G70 (G70), met at a local hotel to release a press statement that sided with PH and its leader, Anwar Ibrahim. 

Then there is the one-man roadshow for political literacy by artist-social activist Fahmi Reza targeted at university students, many of them first time voters.

Fahmi is as prominent as any public figure in Malaysia through his satirical drawings of royalty, politicians and universities.

His ongoing court cases and repeated run-ins with the police are a testimony to his willingness to put his personal liberty on the line for his democratic ideals.

His rudimentary ‘kelas demokrasi’ – fulfilling at best a Politics 101 course at tertiary-level – has nevertheless been attended by hundreds of students at each venue.

However, the pushback has been immediate and sometimes concerted, from the Ministry of Higher Education, insipid university administrations, and from academics with close relations to the political establishment.

Students at one private university, for example, were told to take down the flipboard at the ‘request’ of the ministry.

Official circulars prohibiting academics from getting involved in politics – perhaps partially in response to the G70 press statement – are now appearing on various social media apps.

The composition of the G70 – some of whom are retired and some say no longer entitled to be called professors – has been the subject of criticism by a pro-establishment group of academics known as Majlis Profesor Negara (MPN).

This might seem petty and could be ignored, had it not been for the institutions, administrations and academics involved. Indeed, some of them were in fact from the top five Malaysian universities.

All the public universities Fahmi visited evicted him before he could conduct his class. Only two, and these being non-public universities, have allowed him to speak on campus.

So where does Gerak stand in all of this? We condemn the official and mainstream reactions to what are essentially practices in democracy.

Indeed, instead of trying to find out why is it the students prefer Fahmi’s ‘Kelas Democracy’ to say, a Malaysia studies-type compulsory course (and there are a number of them), we see attempts to swiftly prevent dissenting and non-pro-establishment views – even to the point of attempting to censor these views – from those who profess to be leaders, educators and administrators.

This is the tragedy of contemporary Malaysian academia. Gerak stands with our colleagues, students and the activists who have been bold enough to speak their minds regardless of the risks.

We continue to hope that the outcome of the election will see a reversal of these tendencies within Malaysia’s higher education environment. – November 18, 2022.

* Press statement from Gerak.

* 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.