COMMENT | I have read “Finding Academic Freedom Reform in Malaysia’s Higher Education Plan (RPTM) 2026-2035”, written by former education minister Maszlee Malik, and I found that the intervention is both timely and welcome.

His reflections on academic freedom, governance, and student agency contribute meaningfully to an ongoing national conversation that Malaysia’s higher education sector must continue to have, openly, critically, and in good faith.

Malaysia’s higher education reform agenda will indeed be judged not by the ambition of its language, but by the depth and durability of its reforms.

On this fundamental point, Maszlee is correct. His insistence that academic freedom must be protected structurally rather than rhetorically reflects a long-standing and...