Malaysia’s political reform – academic freedom
NEW MANDALA
Towards the end of 2011, several incidents unfolded bringing the issue of academic freedom to the fore of Malaysia’s public discourse. Among them were the demonstrations held to oppose University and University College Act (UUCA 1975), one in PWTC and another in UPSI. Adam Adli and Safwan Anang, emerged as voices to champion the cause. However, we will not discuss demonstrations here, but we will explore briefly the main issue underlying the demonstrations, which is academic freedom. Systematically, we will look into its definition, the examples of the lack of freedom, the solutions and their implications.
Borrowing from The Lima Declaration on Academic Freedom and Autonomy of Institutions of Higher Education, academic freedom is defined as “the freedom of members of the academic community individually or collectively, in the pursuit, development and transmission of knowledge, through research, study, discussion, documentation, production, creation, teaching, lecturing and writing.” To ascertain whether academic freedom was observed or not, we will use four categories of relationship– academic freedom between government and institutions, administrators and academics, among peers and finally by external factors. By looking at these four categories, we can conclude that academic freedom is rarely observed in Malaysia.
Generally, there are two clear factors that show the absence of academic freedom in local universities.
Firstly, academic institutions are not free politically. Underlying this is the infamous University and University College Act (UUCA 1975). University students and staffs have been denied the right to express support or opposition towards any political organisation. They could also be placed under constant monitoring if they are suspect of violation[1]. Moreover, under the discipline of staff rules, academics are prevented from taking public stands on controversial issues. Imagine the tragedy that befalls a nation when great minds like these are disallowed from steering the political discourse towards a more intellectual tune. Perhaps this is the reason why such hilarity and absurdity is expected when national policies are discussed publicly.
Second, academic institutions are not free administratively. Despite the numerous plans from the Ministry of Higher Education to grant more autonomy to the academic institutions, the practice on the ground shows another story entirely. The power of the state, often times, override the university constitution or by-laws. It is also not unusual for the state to determine the compulsory subjects taught in universities such as Islamic & Asian Civilisation, Thinking Skills and Ethnic Relations which effectiveness are questionable[2]. Furthermore, the issue that academics should worry most is the banning of research topics by the government under the pretext of racial sensitivity and national security. Topics like ethnic conflicts, religious issues and local corruption are amongst them. This is a shame as only with such discourse, willMalaysia be one step closer in resolving long standing contentious issues.
Despite the pessimism, the government has been taking a more liberal stance. In light of recent determined pressure from certain quarters, Prime Minister Najib’s administration in his address to the nation during Malaysia Day 2011, has promised to look into amending section 15 of the act to allow students and faculty members to be members of a political organisations. An exercise which his supporters have claimed to be staying true to the ruling coalition’s pledge of political reform. But this ‘reform’ only scratches the tip of the iceberg, instead of addressing the crux of the matter. Sure, one could argue that this is a departure from the orthodox method of ‘Government Knows Best’ but if the Prime Minister were to listen very carefully to the people, what they really clamour for is the freedom to express their opinions, exercise their right to take position in controversial national issues and further liberalisation of the academic institution which requires more than the amendment of section 15 of UUCA or repealing it altogether.
