How must we rank ourselves?

I write in honour of Universiti Utara Malaysia's (UUM) recent official rejection to reinstate two of its faculty members, myself and my wife Dr Mutiara Mohamad. We refused to sign the Surat Akujanji (Pledge of Loyalty) and still refuse to do so. This answer came after almost one year of waiting.

This self-proclaimed 'Harvard of the East' needs to be ranked the world's number one university for stifling critical and divergent thinking. The minister of higher education continues to sanction this practice.

Enough have we debated on the ranking of our universities which demoralise the work of our hardworking academics who aspire to become public and organic intellectuals. Many have written publicly to voice the idea that there is a growing hunger for our universities to be radically transformed.