PAS has set up a task force to look into the curbing of academic freedom in Malaysia due to “perceived” political interference, and is hoping to garner enough support to discuss the matter on a national level.

Party vice-president Salahuddin Ayub said that the decision was made in the PAS central committee meeting, and the task force will be chaired by Salahuddin himself.

The setting-up of the task force comes weeks after the removal of Prof Redzuan Othman as the chief of the Universiti Malaya Centre for Democracy and Elections (Umcedel), a group that has conducted political surveys that has not always favoured the government.

Salahuddin ( right ) said that the party considers the latest episode, where it said perception of political interference can no longer be ignored, to be the latest in a long line of cases where academic freedom seems to have been curtailed.

“After so many years, almost six decades since independence, we need to start asking- when are we going to win awards such as the Nobel Prize? Countries that developed much later than us have all won prestigious academic awards,” he said.

“The kind of excessive interference is what is holding us back from achieving greater things,” he added.

“Putrajaya needs to stop interfering so that Universiti Malaya can return into the fold of top 100 universities in Asia according to the Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2014.”