Disappointing state of Malaysian scholar-activism

 

Activism is defined as efforts to promote, impede, direct, or intervene in social, political, economic, and environmental reform. Scholar-activism is part of this.

Scholar-activists are first and foremost, academics. They are educators employed by an institution of higher education, such as a university. These academics have one foot in academe and the other in the struggles of society. Therefore, a scholar-activist functions as a bridge between these two spaces.

They link the intellectually privileged and theoretical space of the “Ivory Tower” with the chaotic and brutal reality of everyday life. This link is important because it connects knowledge production spaces (universities) to a social reality that needs constant updating.

Without innovation, reality regresses into stagnation, which eventually impedes development in all its positive forms.

Knowledge, whether newly discovered or reinterpreted using existing facts, has the potential to impact and stimulate positive change in society at various levels. This is where the scholar-activist should grab the baton and pass knowledge or “innovation” over to the community.

Ideally, this process should have a positive impact on policy at both the micro and macro levels. Most importantly, the scholar-activist communicates with society, which is very important.

Governments often consult universities when they need to solve a problem of national or global significance. There are many movies about this, where some fictitious government engages a lone, dishevelled professor of psychology to advise them on how to anticipate the next move of its enemy.

Scholar-activists are academics who also take an explicitly political standpoint in their scholarly work. These academics use their work to address the big problems of society.

For example, they may link their scholarly interest in Comparative Literature with elite corruption, marginalisation, inequality, exclusion, and the class difference that they observe in the society within which they live.

Scholar-activists are also almost always in pursuit of social justice. They try to influence policy or public opinion through their popular writing, speaking at civil society forums, and participating in street protests and sit-ins.

They also publish popular articles and books, which are accessible to the general public. They do all this, in addition to their academic work of teaching, research, and publishing in their scholarly fields of specialisation.

Scholar-activism requires collaboration and strategic partnerships both within and outside the confines of the university. Fundamental to a successful scholar-activist “movement” in any country is the hunger for social justice, robust research, personal sincerity and commitment, and the ability to “critically reflect”.

Regional peers show activism possible

Is there such a group among Malaysia’s public university lecturers today? Can we speak of a scholar-activist “community”?

Apparently not, because here, our government prefers that all public universities remain “tightly fused” at the hip of the Higher Education Ministry and other relevant agencies.

Furthermore, legislation such as the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA) and the Statutory Bodies (Discipline and Surcharge) Act (Act 605) are already in place and serve as obstacles to scholar-activism.

However, I personally feel that despite these draconian legislations, there could be more scholar-activism in the country.

I, and a handful of others in the public university system (you know who you are!) are living proof that one can function as a scholar-activist, provided we sacrifice, do the work, and learn how to write and speak “intelligently and creatively” for the sake of social justice.

Many lecturers in other countries have done it, so why not us? For example, Professor Gokarakonda Naga Saibaba is an Indian scholar of English literature at Delhi University. He has engaged in human rights activism in support of vulnerable populations in India, including poverty-stricken and highly discriminated tribal groups.

Another is Jadavpur University (JU) English professor Doyeeta Majumder. She has consistently and publicly objected to rising anti-Muslim hate speech in India under the nationalist ruling BJP party.

Muslims protest against a BJP politician for allegedly uttering blasphemous remarks against the religion in Kolkata, India in June 2022

When I searched for “scholar-activist Philippines” online, I was also pleasantly surprised. There was an article on Professor Ramon Guillermo, a scholar-activist who focused on Indonesian and Filipino society.

This article was written and published in 2020 by another Filipino Professor, UZ Eliserio, who is himself a scholar-activist. Both are based at the University of the Philippines, Diliman.

Then, I searched for “scholar-activism Malaysia” online. What came up were mostly scholarly articles and books on student movements and social activism. There was hardly anything about Malaysian scholars and their activism.

However, there was a lot about the history of student activism in Malaya and student groups in universities who identified with the anti-colonial movement of the early 20th century.

Academic apathy

Overall, scholar-activism in Malaysia is a very disappointing scenario. Among the student activists of the 1940s and 1950s, a few were academically inclined and eventually became scholars in universities.

Among the men were Syed Husin Ali, Syed Hussein Alatas, James Puthucheary, Wang Gungwu, Chandra Muzaffar, Ishak Shaari and Abdul Rahman Embong. Among the women were Adibah Amin, Aishah Ghani, Asmah Haji Omar, Nik Safiah Karim, Siti Hawa Salleh, Mavis Puthucheary and Noraini Othman.

Granted, UUCA and Act 605 have had a negative impact on intellectual adventurism among our lecturers today. However, the majority of them are also uninterested in the “bigger picture” of socio-political reform, have selfish interests in their promotion, and have underdeveloped critical-thinking skills. The latter is largely due to the poor quality of their primary and secondary school education.

Couple this with their overwhelming obsession with KPIs, competition for administrative positions in the faculty, toxic internal politics and sucking up to superiors with political connections, scholar-activism is the last thing on the minds of our public university lecturers. - Mkini

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SHARIFAH MUNIRAH ALATAS is a retired academician with zero tolerance for corrupt, arrogant, and frivolous leadership.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.