Stage 4 cancer in our public universities

The Malay Dignity Congress organised by several public universities was nothing but a farce.

Education is the key to instilling principles of democracy and for societal advancement, especially in a plural society. When public universities play politics, raising racial and religious tensions, you know the nation is heading for the garbage heap.

Zainal Kling’s opening address sounded more like a speech at an Umno assembly than an academic discourse.

Universities in Malaysia over the years have imposed draconian measures on their students. It is ironic that the academic faculty has gone the opposite direction and opened the floodgates for universities to be involved in politics.

The education ministry should reprimand the academics involved in this congress and dock their pay, but we all know our current ministers are gutless when it comes to the Malay agenda.

The Pakatan Harapan (PH) government has been unable to decide on Dr Zakir Naik, what more reprimand these wayward academics.
Don’t forget, Education Minister Maszlee Malik spoke using the same racial overtones when discussing the quota system.

Race-bashing is more prevalent under a weak government that has lost its direction. Since PH took power, there has been a controversy almost every week, created either by themselves or by other groups.

After the debate on khat and Naik, we now are busy with “Malay dignity”.

The government can’t seem to decide on what matters most: putting money in people’s pockets so that they can enjoy a decent quality of life.

What made academics from Universiti Malaya come out of the woodwork and display in public their bigoted opinions?

Have they harboured this opinion all along, and feel that now is the right time to bare their internals?

If these closet opinions have been simmering in the background, undetected among academics all these years, our education system is rotten to the core.

How can we employ fresh university graduates who can only offer an imaginary social contract as their curriculum vitae to secure employment?

The only contract that exists for Malaysia as a country is the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), signed by the UK, Ireland, the Federation of Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo and Sarawak.

MA63 formed Malaysia on the basis that we are all equal under God, to live in peace and harmony, respecting different religions and culture.

The Rukun Negara embodies these principles, but is now forgotten by the Malay extremists who have infiltrated our public universities.

Zainal is a good example of extremism. It may come to a shock to people like him that there is no social contract in MA63 that says Malays come first, and it is about time our academics go back to school and learn history.

Currently, I can only give the professors, doctorate holders and lesser academics who participated in the Malay dignity circus a big “F” for history.

For the academic pseudo-politicians who are trying to hoodwink the public by stirring racial and religious sentiments for their own benefit, I can give an A+. They passed with distinctions for getting the full attention of the Malaysian public for their idiocy.

The worrying part is how spent politicians from the Barisan Nasional era are now using their academic proxies to spew their toxic rhetoric.

Stage 4 cancer has spread to our universities – even chemotherapy or traditional medicines won’t help now.

Naik’s talks are considered mild compared to the speeches of the academics who attended the congress.

One question for parents who send their children to public universities is: do you want to send your children to be educated and to excel in a competitive and challenging environment, or to be taught by academics who have become bigots?

You won’t be able to get a job anywhere in the world when your only merit is a so-called social contract. It might have some value if the so-called social contract is legally binding and employers have no choice but to honour it.

It’s better to send children to Chinese schools where they can get a decent education, learn about discipline, and excel in mathematics and science.

Malay parents are in great danger now when sending their children to public universities which are flooded with extremist lecturers who can only teach that Malay success comes from an imaginary social contract.

These academics are really saying that Malay students don’t have to lift a finger because of their entitlement.

Let’s speak the truth about Malay dignity. Who brought it down? Non-Malays?

Who has been charged in court for massive corruption? Who destroyed Felda, the land scheme for the Malay poor? Who abused Tabung Haji, the scheme to help rural Malays who put aside their life savings to perform the haj?

Was it not the Malay leaders?

This is a clear example of a Malay proverb, “Harapkan pagar, pagar makan padi”. It’s a case of Malay leaders preying upon their own kind.

There is really no hope for Malaysia when the likes of former deputy finance minister Ahmad Maslan offers to be a GST consultant to PH for free.

What can we can say about Malaysia under PH? Caught in a folly of their own making, the government seems to be stepping on land mine after land mine, and there doesn’t seem to be a way out.

Their credibility is at an all-time low and people have lost confidence in the government.

This is frightening. We still have a long way to go before the next general election. - FMT