Political interference prevalent in our universities, says academic

Sharifah Munirah Alatas says political pressure makes students and academics generally fearful of participating in dialogues on national and societal issues.

The Universities and University Colleges Act stifles academic freedom by depriving academics and students the means to speak on sensitive societal issues, says a scholar.

PETALING JAYA:

 Political interference is prevalent in Malaysian university campuses, stifling academic freedom and autonomy, says independent scholar Sharifah Munirah Alatas.

She said there is a fear or a lack of willingness among students to participate in dialogues on national and societal issues due to political pressure, which she called the “elephant in the room”.

“Politics should not have a place in a university education because it stifles creative and critical thinking. We have this problem in public universities, especially at the management level, where politics decides who heads universities,” she said at a forum here.

“It is very difficult to speak up against a system that is highly politicised because you know what would happen,” she said, hinting at repercussions that outspoken academics will face.

Munirah was speaking at the launch of “Ivory Tower Reform: A Vision for Higher Education in Malaysia”, a book that she edited, on Dec 13.

She said laws such as the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 also stifle academic freedom by denying academics and students avenues to speak on sensitive societal issues.

Fellow academic Sarah Wijesinghe said the repression of academic freedom is a problem endemic in public universities and also in private universities.

She said politically conscious students who wanted to speak up about issues are afraid to do so within the university systems for lack of space for dialogue.

“If the topic of a dialogue does not conform to what is acceptable by the management, then it won’t happen. That’s the reality I’ve seen,” she said.

Political appointees in varsities

Munirah said university autonomy should not mean only academic freedom, but also autonomy to manage and run a university, a condition absent in Malaysia due to the prevalence of political appointments.

She lamented the lack of political will to detach politics from the nation’s public higher education system. “But it helps to keep nagging and talking about it because eventually, things might change,” she added.

The need to end political appointments in universities was also raised by the former deputy higher education minister, Indera Mahkota MP Saifuddin Abdullah, who told FMT in April that eliminating political appointments to university boards could enhance the appeal of Malaysian universities to top scholars. - FMT