Why there is no academic freedom in Malaysia

Just recently all staff and students were warned not to attend the Bersih 4 rally held around Malaysia on 29-30^th August.

And the list goes on.

Most academics fear the consequences and repercussions of speaking out about public issues, unless their views are favourable to the BN Government. Cooperation with opposition held governments in Kelantan and Penang is also taboo. Most academics choose to remain silent

However one of the more disturbing things is that some local academics go out of their way to apologise for the lack of academic freedom in pseudo research, where for example, the issue with academic freedom with academic responsibility would be linked, making an underlying assumption that academics cannot be trusted to be academically responsible.

This is probably best epitomized by a comment made by a Malaysian academic "Alang Ahmad" on the Scholars and Researchers for Academic Freedom in Malaysia (SARAF) on Facebook, where he said….

"Sorry, we UiTM lecturers owe our livelihood to the BN Govt. Besides unity of Malays has greater importance than the silly wishes of some juveniles" Nov. 25 2011.

Some academics have followed their 'superiors' agenda by creating research that supports government ideas and points of view like Ketuanan Melayu. Such a case was where the academic from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (USM) used an extended concept of 'Nam Tien', a term used to refer to the migration from the Red river delta to the Mekong Delta during the 11^th and 18^th Century to argue that the Malay race has for thousands of years been a target of invasion, due to envy by other races.

Even more disturbing is the reluctance of university academics to speak out against their superiors, leaving the door open for university management to mismanage and flaunt the system financially. The author was told by a state director of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) that he has tried for years to get university staff to report their superiors for corruption, but been unable to get anybody to stand forward and make a formal report.

Dr. Ibrahim Ahmad, the deputy vice chancellor if INTI-Laureate International University claims that the Malays are 'cultural prisoners' and are not courageous in speaking out due to the norms of society. He goes on to say that this weakness is allowing extremism to creep in and preventing Malays advancing.

Public universities in Malaysia are heavily politicized. All vice chancellors are selected by the Ministry of Education and personally appointed by the minister. Some vice chancellors have close connections with the Biro Tata Negara (BTN), an organization that has been heavily criticized for its villainous brainwashing, racism, and propaganda. It appears the most important qualification of a vice chancellor is his/her loyalty to the BN Government, rather than academic and administrative abilities.

In addition, very few deans and office bearers are elected by lecturers within the faculties, so these leaders tend not to be accountable to their staff, giving them wide powers. These people tend to be loyal to their superiors and thus academics are under close scrutiny of their activities.

According to the highly cited US expert on education Dr. Philip Altmbach, it is difficult to see how a fully developed higher education system can be developed without academic freedom.