MP SPEAKS Lockdown or shut-down of Universiti Malaya to prevent Anwar from speaking to students is latest example of “first world infrastructure, third world mentality” afflicting our universities which will condemn the nation to a future of mediocrity.

Imagine the lockdown of Oxford University and the shut-down of all electricity supplies to plunge one of the leading universities in the world into darkness just to deny the British Opposition Leader, Edward Miliband from returning to his alma mater campus to address the undergraduates?

Or imagine the lockdown of Monash University and the shut down of all electricity supplies to prevent the Australian Opposition Leader William Shorten from addressing students in his alma mater university, which had advertised itself online thus: “Monash is ranked in the top one per cent of world universities – 91st in the world – according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2013/14”. (Monash this month improved its franking in the THE World University Rankings in 2014/15 to No. 83).

Banish both thoughts - for it would be completely unthinkable that such silly notions would be entertained by any self-respecting university administrator or even political leader in the United Kingdom.

It would also be completely unthinkable that world-class American universities like Harvard, Stanford, California Institute of Technology or Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) would be locked down or their electricity supplies completely shut down to prevent opposition politicians from returning to their alma maters to speak to the students.

UM's act is third world joke

Former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s indictment of Malaysia a decade ago as “a nation of first-class infrastructure but third-world mentality” is even more telling and relevant today in Prime Minister Najib Razak’s Malaysia in 2014.

I don’t think previous PMs, including Abdullah and Mahathir would have been so desperate or cheapskate as to approve such an outrageous affront to academic freedom and excellence as to plunge the University of Malaya into darkness by a shutdown of the university’s electricity supplies.

This is although Mahathir had done more than any other person in Malaysia to trample on academic freedom.

By plunging Universiti Malaya into darkness, those in authority have also plunged the country into a democratic and educational darkness as well as  a darkness of the soul.

The lock-down/ shut-down of Universiti Malaya to prevent Anwar from speaking to students is latest example of “first world infrastructure, third world mentality” afflicting our universities which will condemn the nation to a future of  mediocrity

 

DAP national vice-chairperson and MP for Seputeh Teresa Kok is right – Universiti Malaya has become an international laughing stock, not only in banning Anwar from returning to his alma mater university to bar him from accepting the invitation of the Universiti Malaya Undergraduates Association (PMUM) to speak on “40 years from Universiti Malaya to prison” but for resorting to the outrageous and preposterous ruse of a shut down of power supplies in the university.

Common ploy of the lowly

Up to now, shut downs of power supplies have been a favourite ploy of lowly officials whether to sabotage opposition parties and leaders from holding public events in public halls or in the undisturbed and  unhampered counting of votes in outlying areas during general elections or by-elections.

Who would have thought that such a disease of “shutdown of power supplies” have now spread to inflect even high-level public officers including university administrators.

The lockdown of Universiti Malaya and shutdown of its power supplies yesterday is a stain and stigma to the reputation of the premier university of the country.

I urge Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, to direct a full inquiry to find those responsible for such a lockdown and shutdown of the university campus, and to take disciplinary action against all those responsible for the stain and stigma to the university – including officials up to deputy vice-chancellor and vice-chancellor levels.

LIM KIT SIANG is the Member of Parliament for Gelang Patah, Johor.