The reasons for the decline in our universities' standards is quite apparent to all long-serving and long-suffering academics in those institutions.

It is no secret that it is not always the best brains in the local universities that are rewarded. We have the surreal scenario in our universities of potentially world-class academicians, ie, recognised experts in their respective fields, being bypassed routinely for promotion because they do not toe the line on issues affecting administration, governance and the nation.

So while vice-chancellors are constantly exhorting their universities to become 'world class' their very own 'world class' citizens are relegated for a combination of reasons. Mainly it is because they are either feared for their intellectual courage and prowess or there is blatant envy of their international academic standing.

A handful, on the other hand, are very selectively promoted to full professorship usually just a couple of years or even months from retirement. It is no exaggeration to say that the majority of those 'penalised' in this manner are non-Malay academicians, whose numbers have thus fallen.

Non-Malay academic staff are a much threatened species now if not a rarity in our institutions of higher learning but outspoken Malay colleagues fearless of the system suffer equally hard too.

The 'Akujanji' loyalty pledge has not only robbed academicians of autonomy, it has also silenced them into ignominy, reducing potential thinkers into quietly abject followers who can be made to jump at the crack of the administration's whip.

However, while the VCs may be at the heart of the mediocrity, the master villains are the heads and the so-called chairs of institutes and centres (of so-called excellence) and the arch villains, the deans of faculties.

Not the most experienced, and rarely the best brains in the faculty, these men and women who are in a hurry to reach the top of the pyramid are the best exemplars of the inhabitants of Bodekland which is linked by the bridge of patronage to Bolehland, the domain of the VCs and their minions.

Despite being 'highly educated', these men and women who execute university policy and enforce its regulations are not averse to practising cronyism and racism. If one views the universities as a microcosm of Malaysian life, it replicates it very closely. Sycophancy, cronyism and patronage are all a way of life.

I would ask the Universiti Malaya vice-chancellor to appoint a team of non-academic personnel to go through the personal files of each and every academic staff member to see how many are pre-eminently qualified for promotion to full and associate professorship.

He may be quite surprised to find out how few have even been asked to apply for the posts by their heads, let alone being called up for an interview. In Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia on the other hand, the discrimination is so entrenched that it can appear to be generous, and actually promote the occasional non-Malay to professor.

There are simple ways to achieve excellence. Firstly, we should use an equal yardstick of meritocracy for all entry points to higher or post-graduate education. Secondly, VCs should reject (but will they as the main beneficiaries?) the prevailing culture of sycophancy, obsequiousness and patronage, a national malaise.

But since the VCs in our universities can only chant 'academic excellence' and cannot sing the song of 'fair play', we will never be able to manage the risks of globalisation to become world-class centres of excellence unless the academic environment and culture changes.

I suggest that an independent body be set up to oversee and monitor governance in local institutions of higher education. It should comprise a good mix of the academic staff and individuals from elsewhere including the private sector.

Finally, a note on the matter of racial polarisation. Chinese educationist Dr Kua Kia Soong notes that racial polarisation in the country is not caused by the country's vernacular school system but more by the government's discriminative education, economic and political policies.

And he asks quite rightly, 'If the different language mediums have caused racial polarisation, how about the Mara colleges which only accept Malay students? Have they caused racial polarisation too?'

However, it has been my observation that it is some of the products of the vernacular school system that are the most communalistic if we use racial and ethnic (not religious) interests and groupings as indicators.

The worst culprits are, in fact, students from Chinese vernacular school who have gained a reputation for being the most ethnocentric lot on our university campuses. So we can appreciate some of the government's concerns about vernacular primary and secondary education.

But quite clearly, those who send their children to vernacular schools are not convinced of the merits of sending them to national schools with their unequal playing fields either. The government should, in fact, be held accountable in one way or another for allowing racism to rear its very ugly head in our national schools by Islamising them and its hard horns to grow in our universities by disadvantaging minorities.

By merely providing education without equal opportunity for all, discrimination, perceived or otherwise, has nurtured racism and destroyed trust.