Umno College a bad idea, says Chandra

Educational and political pursuits must be separate, he insists.

KUALA LUMPUR: The pursuit of knowledge should be kept separate from the quest for political power, political analyst Chandra Muzaffar said today in a comment on the proposal to set up Umno College.

Kedah Umno leader Mukhriz Mahathir’s idea “is just wrong”, he told FMT. “Society’s pursuit of education should be taken out of the realm of party politics.”

He said institutions of learning and political parties served different goals.

“The role of an educational institution is the unbiased pursuit of knowledge, very separate from the primary mission of a political party, which is to contest for power.”

He said the proposed college would be a bad idea even if Umno were not involved in running it. He recalled that he spoke out against the Tunku Abdul Rahman (TAR) College when MCA proposed it.

Chandra, who has taught social science in several universities, said he would not accept the argument that Umno College would be a means of helping the disadvantaged rise up the social ladder because there were other ways of doing this.

“One could have higher education that is affordable to the vast majority of people so the poor can also pursue education. Or education could be provided free like in some countries.”

Another academic, Sivamurugan Pandian of Universiti Sains Malaysia, was more supportive of Mukhriz’s proposal.

“Certainly we would want to put aside politics from education, but there already have been cases where political parties are behind the formation of education institutes.”

He said he would welcome the setting up of another educational institute regardless of the name given to it.

One would have to study the syllabus before judging whether the college would be a means of strengthening the current political regime, he added.