I am writing to express my disagreement over the recent move by the Education Ministry to consider forcing undergraduates to sign a contract with the government, a move that aims to silence the strong voices of our future leaders.

Firstly, there is no proven relation between academic performance and political involvement. In fact the world's top universities are the ones that produce future leaders. Many presidents from the United States (US) for example are graduates of Harvard and their political involvement traces back to their undergraduate days. Chairs of the Labour and Conservative Club of Oxford and Cambridge will most likely lead the nation of Great Britain.

And look no further, for many Malaysian politicians were student leaders and some great politicians like Dr Mahathir Mohamad even rebelled against the Tunku Abdul Rahman's administration with his publication of The Malay Dilemma . Silencing the voices of undergraduates is not an option; the government should instead mould them into future leaders of the country.

Mahathir also claims that Malays in the local university are left behind compared with other races. Why only the Malays? Is it because of their strong political attachment? Other races like the Indians, Portuguese and Orang Asli are not performing well academically either. Of course, the reason for this lack of academic performance is obvious - they lack competition, and not because they are too politically involved.

Politicians often can only see up to the next election, but society and especially the educated must look ahead and think about the future of our beloved country.

Do we want an environment where freedom of speech and thought is valued? Or perhaps, if we believe that freedom of speech could lead to chaos, we might opt for a future where everyone is forced to listen to a sole dictator.