‘Colleges, varsities influenced by racial, religious politics’

DAP's P Ramasamy claims incendiary racial and religious politics have permeated educational institutions and that the Titas slides issue is merely the tip of the iceberg.

GEORGE TOWN: The problem is not with universities, but the macro politics of how a particular race and religion is promoted to the exclusion of others, says P Ramasamy of the DAP.

While lauding the sacking of a lecturer behind the flagrant slides mocking Hinduism and Sikhism, Ramasamy said the incident merely showed the tip of the iceberg.

He said the ideology of the problematic “submerged iceberg” — the ruling government — through its politics of racial supremacy, had permeated schools, colleges and universities in the country.

“It is not the lecturer or Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), but the ‘sickness’ of the Malaysian political, social and cultural system.

“The net result is further polarisation and conflict.

“The answer to this conundrum must be found in politics and how we are going to solve the problems created.

“To do that, we need to revert to issues that promote justice, equality and democracy for all Malaysians,” Ramasamy said.

He said Malaysia needed to exit from sectarian politics which had sowed “the worst seeds of destruction” and chaos over decades of rule.

He said the damaging ideology had been passed down to extremist academicians, who in turn had disparaged non-Islamic faiths and their practices.

“What happened in UTM is not going to be the last such incident.

“The combination of Malay ethnicity and Islam of a particular variant provides the ideological apparatus for political parties like Umno to perpetuate hegemony.

“Racial and religious politics, by intertwining, have created social and cultural problems of a huge magnitude.

“It is not the lecturer or UTM but ‘sickness’ of the Malaysian political, social and cultural system.”

It was reported that the lecturer was on a one-year contract with the university after retirement.

The lecture materials, which went viral, had portrayed Hindus as “dirty” and misrepresented the history of Sikhism, triggering an uproar.

The slides were part of UTM’s Titas subject, which is mandatory for all tertiary students, regardless of religion.

UTM is currently reviewing its Titas module, which includes appointing experts in Indian, Sikh and Chinese civilisation studies.

The university is also closely monitoring the Titas learning methods and reviewing its model to ensure they follow the syllabus approved by the ministry.