Where Umno politics is first and education second: Fair for UPSI to punish Adam Adli?

If you go to the official portal of UPSI on the chancellory pagehttp://www.upsi.edu.my/en/about-upsi/chancellory it reflects the lack of standard and quality of the university, especially its knowledge and use of the English language; spelling mistakes, grammar errors, mixed-up Malay and English terms and poorly written paragraphs.

The Vice Chancellor's message or “amanat” however reflects the entire management of the university. No wonder, people say it has not been able to gain a name and class of its own and is instead known to have a much lower standard than that of UiTM. In fact, UPSI is the same standard as any of the colleges in Malaysia. Some private colleges are in fact much better. The entire website is a sham and proof this claim.

Poor standards

Why has UPSI, originally the Sultan Idris Teachers Training College and despite being upgraded to the status of a university through the proper stages, such a poor standard still? There are several reasons.

The entire staff from the Vice Chancellor to the security guards are mediocre. The top management - just like in UiTM - was appointed to uphold UMNO’s agenda and policy. They are not really interested in academic excellence or improving the overall quality of the university.

Weak foresight and efforts by the top management to diversify the courses also contributed to the set back. The management wanted to hike UPSI enrollment and one easy way - or so it thought - was to offer many and varied courses. But all that happened was UPSI ended up trying to be a Jack of all trades but Master of none.

There are many former students who have groused about UPSI and its poor brand name recognition. Not many Malaysians have heard of it and that has been another stumbling block to the graduates it produced. Many of them are not worthy of employment and even Education Minister Muhyiddin Yasin announced recently that the UMNO-BN government could not guarantee to employ them as teachers!

Indeed, this is a huge blow to the graduates who felt that they have wasted their four years in the university. The present crop of undergraduates studying in UPSI are also in the same dilemma as the aspiring but jobless teachers.

Trapping Malay youths

Unfortunately there is no effort made by the university to improve the situation. Being backed by UMNO is sufficient reason for its existence, it seems. UPSI is more interested in the politics of UMNO; in being the dirty hands of UMNO.

The latest incident being to publicly punish Adam Adli with a suspension of three semesters, prolonging his stay for 18 months, at the end of which his reward is a sub-standard degree. By then, Adam would have spent five and a half years at UPSI! Does Adam or any of our Malaysian youth deserve such treatment or persecution?

But this is how the UMNO system traps Malay youth. Toe the line or suffer. Like other average-income Malays, Adam Adli is trapped. He is also in debt with the PTPTN loan, which frankly, many students find a burden. It is not surprising that some students have left UPSI either to work or to study elsewhere.

Unhappy teaching staff

The UPSI teaching staff are themselves disheartened by the top management because their welfare is also not taken care of. Teaching staff have been simply transferred to other departments due to the lack of resources, regardless of their areas of expertise. Those who are specialists in certain fields end up getting involved in other fields. This is an enormous waste of their hard earned experience and specialty knowledge.

It is therefore not surprising that there is a lot of dissatisfaction and resentment in the university. The pressure valve was just waiting to blow up and the anger manifested itself in the recent police-instigated violence during the New Year Eve rally against the UUCA Act 1971. This resulted in 17 students arrested, two seriously injured. One of them Safwan Anang was even beaten into a coma before he regained consciousness.

Umno politics take precedence over education

The most unfortunate thing is that the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Student Affair & Alumni ) Junaidi Abu Bakar did not bother to show care for the welfare of the students as befitting his role. Either he did not dare or he was too busyi protecting the interest of UMNO. Yes, Junaidi is an UMNO strongman, and because of this, the present Vice Chancellor won’t do anything about it either.

When politics get so entrenched in education, the the nation's youth will suffer. Will Junaidi suffer, the Vice Chancellor and other staff? No, they will be too busy drawing fat salaries paid by tax payers. But the students - the fountain of life of a country - will suffer.

As many of its own students say, UPSI is hopeless; it is going nowhere - manily, because its boss UMNO litself is lost in its dark and corrupt world and does not know the way out.

Malaysia Chronicle