A neo-feudal culture is to be blamed for the grave state of academic freedom and scholarship in local universities today, according to a prominent political scientist.

International Movement For A Just World (JUST) president Dr Chandra Muzaffar said the culture impacts upon authority, power and control, leading politicians to think that they have authority on universities, which in fact require an environment antithetical to such a feudalistic culture.

"By having the appointment process of university heads a closed affair without consulting academicians beforehand, politicians are able to have their interests advanced through the vice-chancellors, who in turn treat their respective institutions as fiefdoms.

"Although such a culture is evident in every aspect of society today, academia suffers the most from this phenomenon which stifles free expression and critical thinking. Universities should rightfully be the breeding ground for different ideas and constant debate and discussion, but alas this is not the situation in our universities today," he told a parliamentary roundtable on the present situation of higher education.

Sharing their experience in this regard were academicians from public institutions of higher learning, including representatives from the University Malaya Academic Staff Association (PKAUM).

Vetting of messages

PKAUM president Rosli Mahat said up to the middle of last year, the lines of communication among employees in UM were open through the in-house e-mail list, which was effective in precipitating discussion on various issues.

"Unfortunately, the vetting of messages and filtering of those deemed 'controversial' then began to take place, effectively shutting down our means to continue this vital endeavor (of open communication)."

"We once had an e-mail sent out to discuss this issue of censorship, but it never made it through the list. The same situation applies to an e-mail sent out with links to (Dr Edmund) Terence Gomez's case; it was never uploaded," he added.

Gomez, who served as deputy president of PKAUM until his recent resignation, said the e-mail list for the university's academic staff was terminated because there were discoveries of pornographic material being sent through the system.

"In such an incident, it would suffice to discipline the culprit without suspending the whole service. The response by the moderator was very knee-jerk and utterly uncalled for," he added.

Gomez had resigned after the university rejected his application for a secondment in order to take up a post in a United Nations agency in Geneva.

Frustration

Another issue raised at the roundtable was the various restrictions imposed on members of the academia through laws such as the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA) and Statutory Bodies Act.

"Academics are the only professionals with regulations dictating what they can do outside of work. It's not as if they require us to produce X amount of research papers or have our works published in journals a certain number of times. Instead, we are told what we can or cannot say even when outside our professional capacity. Now, if we want to say even something supportive of the government, we need to seek approval from the Higher Education Ministry beforehand," said Rosli.

"There is a strong sense of frustration and demoralisation as a result of this restriction from contributing to meaningful social changes necessary today," he added.

Organised by the DAP, the roundtable which was also attended by representatives of opposition political parties and former academicians culminated in a joint decision to submit a letter of appeal to the prime minister to intervene in Gomez's case.