THERE will be academic freedom only if universities replace their vice-chancellors and remove politically appointed officials, said a National University of Singapore professor.

Professor Syed Farid Alatas, who is on the Education: Visions For a New Malaysia panel at Projek Dialog, said a change in administrators is a must to have better institutions.

“Running a university is not difficult, but our vice-chancellors are not proper scholars. They are political animals.”

He said universities must not appoint administrators based on race.

“Why can’t we have a non-Malay vice-chancellor? It’s ridiculous not to.”

He earlier said the existing culture has led to a dearth of people willing to voice their opinions.

“People hide behind external restrictions because they don’t want to voice their opinions”, and because of this, “the standard of universities here is really low”.

Malaysian universities recently showed improvement in international rankings, with Universiti Malaya making the top 100 in the Quacquarelli Symonds global university rankings.

However, the panellists at Projek Dialog said local institutions have failed to promote critical thinking and activism, which should be encouraged.

Syed Farid remains optimistic that an administrative reform can turn things around for universities.

“If we replace the vice-chancellors, other things will fall into place.”

But, he said, the political will to carry out such actions might not be there, as “they’re afraid of political backlash”.

Panellist Fadiah Nadwa Fikri, a human rights lawyer, is less convinced that an administrative reform is the silver bullet to end the problem.

“We cannot rely on the administration and lecturers to bring back the spirit of activism.”

She said the onus is on students, citing UM students before the 1969 elections as evidence of Malaysia’s history of political activism.

She said such a spirit has been quashed by legislation introduced to curb student activism, adding that “students must fight again for marginalised groups” if universities are to be seen as a space for discourse. – July 25, 2018.