UKM: Don’t link ending of vice-chancellor’s service to cancellation of speech

UKM vice-chancellor Noor Azlan Ghazali had said social activist Hishamuddin Rais was not allowed to speak at the programme as it was not registered with UKM.

PETALING JAYA: The ending of the contract of Prof Noor Azlan Ghazali as Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) vice-chancellor has nothing to do with the recent cancellation of a lecture by social activist Hishamuddin Rais at the university.

The education ministry, in a statement today, said Azlan’s contract stipulated his service will end on Dec 31 this year.

It said Education Minister Maszlee Malik had expressed his gratitude to Azlan for his services to UKM since 2014.

“Steps have been taken over the past few months to find his replacement.

“As such, the ministry requests the co-operation of the media to avoid publishing inaccurate reports to avoid any confusion.”

On Thursday, Abdul Wahid Omar, chairman of UKM’s board of directors, had announced that Prof Mohd Hamdi Abd Shukor had been picked as vice-chancellor for a three-year term to replace Azlan from Jan 1.

The media had earlier linked the ending of Azlan’s contract to the incident last month where Hishamuddin was stopped from giving his speech at an event organised by a group called “Diskopi”, comprising of UKM lecturers and students.

Hishamuddin said he was about to speak at a discussion, titled “Reformasi Struktural: Mahathir dan Anwar lagi?”, when he was told by organisers that the UKM administration was not allowing the programme to continue.

Responding to Azlan’s then explanation that the programme was cancelled as it was not registered with the university, Maszlee said there should be no need to seek permission to speak in open spaces at universities.

He was puzzled by the incident as just two weeks into his stint as minister, he had declared that all universities would become open spaces for intellectual discourse.

“This should be a lesson to public universities. Do not prevent any intellectual discourse.

“We should treat ‘Diskopi’ like a night school … encourage it to happen.

“Academic freedom is being killed as it is beginning to thrive.”

Maszlee also said he would ask Hishamuddin to go from one university to another to speak, and that they must open up spaces to do so. - FMT