The Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) campus community thrives to be a hub for intellectual discourse, discussions of various world issues and problems. The quest for knowledge and wisdom is borderless. Scholarship should not be confined to such notions that restrict human potential and possibilities for creativity and growth. Similarly, research, innovations and other university endeavours must, finally, in one way or another benefit citizens of the world.

Towards this end, UUM welcomes international students, traditional and non-traditional, from all over the world to join us. We value our international students for the intellectual depth they bring into our academic community as well as to further enrich world cultural diversity. - UUM Sintok's welcoming message

Finally - the dream of becoming a Harvard came true for UUM. It was reported on the university's website that its vice- chancellor (former director of Biro Tata Negara) returned last year from a two month management training workshop with fresh new ideas to transform Malaysia 's foremost management university into a powerhouse of innovative ideas and frontier thinking.

He has brilliant ideas on paradigm shifts, thinking outside of the box, critical thinking, creativity, and freedom of speech on campus. He is reported to have conducted the "biggest dynamic group training" in the world, in UUM's own stadium, earning a place in the Malaysian Book of Records .

Akujanji and UUCA

Now the Malaysian academia awaits for such a Harvard-inspired transformation. The management university will hopefully hold another "world's biggest brainstorming session" on how to repeal the University and University Colleges Act (UUCA) and how to discard the last two clauses of the Surat Akujanii so that it will be less fascistic in its content. I am sure the thousands of student and the hundreds of lecturers will have ideas on how to make UUM totally free from political stranglehold and be liberated like the real Harvard University.

I am proud of UUM and its achievements and still think of my former students who have so much creative energy, enthusiasm and intelligence, until totalitarianism began to take over the lives of the inhabitants of this campus beginning at the end of the 1990s. I joined this institution in 1991 to contribute eagerly and grow as an educator and make a difference in the lives of the students regardless of race, color, creed, and religious orientation. Teaching Creativity, Critical Thinking, and Ethics was an exciting experience. I was the university's advisor for AIESEC, an internationally-based organisation that promotes success in economics through the cultivation of a multiculturalist leadership.

In August 2006, I was granted an audience with the deputy vice-chancellor (academic affairs) of UUM offering my service as a visiting lecturer and advisor to graduate students. I wanted to contribute in ways that would benefit the students of a university of which I was once a faculty of.

I was dismissed, amongst others, for refusing to sign the Surat Akujanji . "Defiance" or " ingkar perintah " was the crime committed. I told the leadership that I would only sign the document when a good explanation on the rights of an academic is guaranteed by this university that professes the concept of "management excellence". How could this Harvard of the East not be able to produce a simple explanation on why its academicians are denied a simple request for a simple explanation? I still think that the document is fit for the consumption of academicians in Nazi Germany.

The last two clauses especially tell us how Malaysian academicians are made to become followers of a regime that would not allow the development of critical sensibility much needed for lecturers to embody - so that students can become better leaders and survivors of this complex economic system than be reduced to become one of the 60,000 jobless graduates unable to produce and articulate good ideas let alone speak up for social justice.

My offer to serve UUM students was rejected with a one-sentence email indicating that "the management" does not concur with my proposal." I was surprised, given the fact that my meeting was "consented" by the director of higher education himself Prof Dr Hasan Said. This means that I brought a message from the Ministry of Higher Education itself. The university defied the wishes of the ministry. This is an 'ingkar perintah' to the higher ups.

I am still wondering whatever happened to the two reports I filed with the Anti-Corruption Agency more than a year ago concerning the abuse of power of the committee that dismissed my wife and I. I wonder how many incidences of abuse of power remain unreported.

I did not have the financial means to bring the university to court. Not yet. Having been dismissed leaves one with no such means. All is lost. The state is perceived to be more powerful than the individual. The university officials continue to smile happily.

Who owns UUM?

But what in the higher education world is happening here? What is the meaning of education, in the mind of our university leaders?

I am wondering who owns UUM. Is it the management, board of directors, pro-chancellors, government, politicians or rakyat? Who owns this Harvard of the East? Who on Earth owns this university? will my recurring question be. Who owns the minds of the students? Why are we struggling to control these beautiful young minds when we can give them a good education for lifelong learning and critical consciousness so that they may not only get jobs easier and lead ethical lives but create more jobs for others so that others may also lead ethical and productive lives. It seems that the university leaders are merely interested in keeping their jobs by pleasing an ideology that is slowly deteriorating, and crumbling in its foundation.

Why has our education system come to a point in which chiefs of government propaganda get promoted to head universities whereas those wishing to open up the minds of students so that they may become thinking citizens, get shown the way out? This "my-way, your-way, or the highway" philosophy of decision-making has permeated many a higher educational institution that aspires to become world-class propagandistic towers of abused power.

It is time to consider banning the activities of Biro Tata Negara on campus and start working towards reviewing the UUCA so that we will see a greater evolution of the thinking skills of our students.

UUM must be the one proposing these sweeping changes. It was once propped up as Institut Pemikiran Mahathir and now with the continuing saga between the present leader and the old one, the political game of UUM has changed.

It is clear that we can no longer allow politics to pollute the philosophy of a university. A university, be it in China, Cuba, the United States, Bangladesh or Timbuktu is still a university with its own unique philosophy of encouraging students to challenge all forms of totalitarianism. Universality of ideas should rule not the particularisation of state propaganda.

This is how Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, and UCLA operate. It is how Oxford and Cambridge work too.

Let us see how this Harvard of the East can emulate its 'parent' institution.

As for me - I still want to help. My heart is with Malaysia where I spent more than a decade teaching her children, writing books, and developing minds.

But who owns UUM? The rakyat and taxpayers want to know.