There is more to Malaysian higher education than the definition offered by the minister of higher education.

If only we can understand its meaning as "drawing out the potentials from within" so that the human self can become a genius who is able to mediate the contradictions of our hypermodern society.

If only the minister had understood that education is not about creating ideologically-driven universities but academies of studies with a philosophical foundation and able to pursue in-depth inquiries fashioned after great medieval universities.

If only the minister had understood that the role of the vice-chancellor is not to create more and more followers of ideologies and become better and better intelligentsia, but to challenge academicians to challenge themselves in challenging the very foundation of what they profess.

If only the minister had appointed vice-chancellors who are true educational philosophers who will become guides by the sides and not true-blue political animals who speak loudly and carry around the long stick provided by the state.

If only the minister had not silenced radical professors who speak the truth, but allowed all voices of dissent to be equally heard and celebrated the radically different opinions yet, curb extremism along the way.

If only the minister projects himself as a transformative leader and not a transparent follower of shackling ideology.

State of hegemony

If we had all that, we would have not have generations of lecturers, students, and civil servants who are known as one of the most obedient in the modern world.

This is the nature of hegemony we have created in the last few decades, through the combination of tradition and total quality control of ideological management.

The word amuk has been replaced by 'amuse', in that we have been given too much bread and circuses in this new matrix of neo-colonialism. We no longer have 'academicians who would run amuck' destroying old regimes of truths and out-dated theories and those who pursue truth outside of the iron cage of irresponsible scholarship and bodies of arrogant knowledge.

We no longer have Hang Jebats in academia, but rather Hang Tuahs in chauffeured Mercedes Benzes blindly following the commands of the quasi-divine rights of political dynasties.

We have academicians who are happy being amused by daily bread and circuses given by those who own the means of manipulating ideologies in academia.

The mind of our children in the Malaysian university is endangered.

Reality of academic world

At present, the Malaysian public universities do not belong to the public.

It belongs to a form of crony-corporate, chauvinistic and carefully crafted controlling device that numbs the human intellect so that there is somewhat an 'official knowledge' that is made to hegemonise.

At present, the government hates academicians who speak for the poor, for the new multi-cultural voices, for the rights of students, for the advancement of society, and for the crushing and smashing of corrupt politicians and practices all in one.

The universities are for those who are produced by this new Malaysian hegemony and who will become cogs in the wheels of a more sophisticated form of mind-controlling machines.

At present, the government hates academicians who inquire deeply into the nature and future of a world plagued and diseased by war, poverty, racism, bigotry, and corporate-crony capitalism.

The government hates intellectuals who engage in social reconstructionism.

There is a desperate attempt to fine-tune the practices of the old regime of control in academia - one that continues the practice of appointing vice-chancellors who are only well-versed in the inner workings of political intrigues, rather that promoting those who are deeply committed to the flowering and flourishing of ideas, especially radical ones that will bring young lecturers to greater heights of intellectual profundity.

We desperately want to create universities based on political ideology without understanding the radical contradiction inherent in the meaning of such words. An ideologically and ethnically-based university will never create the culture of liberalism and universality of ideas we charter as university education.

What is a university?

What is so complex about the definition of a university for it to be misunderstood by those who govern it from high places?

A university is a secularly-sacred institution of scholarly pursuit of ideas that must not be used to create further divisions in society - be they division and sub-divisions based on race, colour, creed, and national origin. It is a place wherein the universality of ideas must reign, guided by philosophies that will bring humanity closer and closer and closer to the meaning of deeply-meaningful personal democracy.

A university is not a diploma mill and a production-house of academic Taylorism. It is not an institution to put a 'Quality Control' stamp on the mind of the children so that they may become merely good workers in a TQM-inspired company. It is not a game of production and reproduction and schooling the mind into total submission.

A university is not a place wherein the discoveries of new bodies of knowledge must point to the dictates of party politics and that 'truth' must be acquired through 'methods' designed by and derived from the structural-functionalism of politics. It must not be a place to canonise the ideology of this or that dubious leader whose interest is in self-emulation and deluding oneself to grandeur. A university has more respect than that.

The university is above politics. It must educate politicians. The professor must guide the politicians. A professor who is a philosopher-ruler and one who is incorruptible and preserves the culture of free inquiry and human liberation is the best minister of higher education any nation can have.

Professing knowledge and helping others grow intellectually is not the same as packaging propaganda and helping others become retarded by it. Even politics has its virtue in the Platonic sense.

Closed minds

We are letting our universities close the Malaysian mind. We have built glasshouses and installed our bread factories and circuses in it.

Borrowing George Lucas, we have too many Siths revenging against each other in the academic world. Their battlefields are University Senate rooms. We need more Master Yodas.

We have closed the mind of the Malaysian when our minister thinks that the university is not a place for those who oppose the government. This is one of the most confusing notion of what the purpose of university education must be.

What is a 'government' then? Why must it not be challenged?

A 'government' is a socio-economic-political entity that derives its legitimation and authority from the people who created the government. A government is a concept that must be consistently overthrown if we wish for the definition and usefulness of it to undergo cycles of birth and rebirth, thesis-anti thesis-synthesis, and dialectical-materialism of change.

A 'government' must consist of people who must also be taught that power is best used to transform others into ethical and intelligent beings and not used to create more power and field of influence so that more wealth can be amassed and more ideologies of control can be designed to have people opiated.

A 'government' is not an institution created to close the mind of those governed; it exists in particular space and time and uses spaces of power and knowledge to make life easier for the largest number of people so that they will become better and better human beings in the evolutionary scheme of human ethics.

If the minister thinks that the government must not be challenged, then he must learn to understand how Complexity or Chaos Theory operates in today's world. He/she must abandon his reading of outdated theories of power and knowledge and the control of consciousness and instead, like the great Sufi Al Ghazalli, embark upon a long journey of exploration of how the mind works and why it must not be subjugated and close shut.

A closed Malaysian mind is a dangerous thing. It lures thinking into forgetfulness, we will forget why we should constantly fight corruption in high places, help fight for the poor of all races, and help recognise how political dynasties are created and evolve into dangerous empire-building in politics.

A closed mind, when gathered in large numbers is made to become good 'knowledge workers' in a K-economy rather than become good 'thinking citizens in a highly complex world of globalising injustices'.

Dare we close more and more of these Malaysian minds then? Who will benefit from these more 'cattle -raising' of the human intellect?

Let us not despair though. Let us not curse darkness but rather, let us light a candle. Let us revive the universities and honor voices of dissent in all our public universities.

Incorruptible university educators, I now speak to you: Here are some fundamental strategies for positive change.

A good minister of higher education will appoint 'philosopher vice-chancellors' and not those who will continue to use the Ideological State Apparatuses of Academia to suppress those wonderful voices of radical multi-culturalism. Politically-motivated vice-chancellors will become educational tyrants.

A good minister will not allow race-based universities to prevail but will break the dangerous trend by designing strategies to correct the imbalances in the way we educate our future generation of Malaysians. One must learn what 'affirmative action' means in the context of creating good environments of intercultural understanding.

A good vice- chancellor, appointed by a good minister, must not think that the university is a mirror of corporate-crony, chauvinistic politics. He must be chosen amongst those who will allow the university to be populated by as many academicians and scholars from the diverse cultural traditions whose allegiance are to the education of the new tolerant, liberal, ethical, and peaceful Malaysian.

Our universities can be great again.

If we are to become Harvards, Princetons, Yales, and Columbias of the East, we must be ready to ask our repressive educational leaders to go on indefinite sabbatical leave; we cannot afford shallow-minded ideologues to destroy the bright young minds of tomorrow.

Our universities can become great oases of learning if we begin to explore the meaning of 'philosophy' in the degrees we acquire 'doctor of philosophy'. Academicians did not earn 'Doctor of Political Ideologies' to begin with.

Let us not expel academicians who demand for their guarantees of academic freedom, those who refuse, among others to sign the Surat Akujanji .

Universiti Utara Malaysia, an institution that called itself 'Harvard of the East' is going down the Malaysian educational history for removing its lecturers for going against the administration. It is a perfect example of a learning institution that is run like a Third World police state. Let us not emulate this 'Harvard of the East'. A university must be more intelligent than that.

We must rewrite the history of our public universities. But first, we must denounce their false' philosophers. Many have become tyrants.

We Malaysians must demand a more intelligent definition of 'higher education'.