Maszlee's appointment as IIUM president puzzling and appalling

The Malaysian Academic Movement (Move) is puzzled and appalled by the recent appointment of Education Minister Maszlee Malik as IIUM president.

For Move, this clearly goes against the new government’s purported commitment to free university management from political appointees.

Just a few weeks ago, Maszlee himself terminated the services of five public universities chairpersons as they were deemed to be BN’s political appointees. There should not be any exception to this policy.

No matter how noble you may think the end is, you can't justify the means. Putting a stop to political appointments in public universities is crucial in bringing back academic freedom to Malaysia.

In defence of Maszlee’s appointment as IIUM president, Wan Saiful Wan Jan, who is the minister's special advisor, reportedly said that Maszlee is the right person to bring IIUM back to its international glory.

We believe Maszlee has the potential to bring all 20 public universities and more than 400 private universities and colleges to international glory, so does that mean he has to first become chairperson to all of these universities?

Move strongly believes that the minister of education must reject his appointment as IIUM President and cease the appointment of any more active politicians to university boards.

In line with our earlier proposal, we call upon the minister to appoint an interim president for IIUM. This individual would then work together with a variety of internal and external stakeholders to come up with a new search system to appoint the IIUM president and board members – and even the university’s senior leadership - who are non-partisan, professional, reform-driven and competent.

Apart from that, Move is also urging the minister to set up the high-level university reform committee we put forward in our 10-point proposal – a proposal the minister said he supports - with a clear mandate to operate independently for all public universities. - Mkini