A deputy ministry declared today that the government will not allow any local university to promote communist ideology.

"The government does not allow our public universities to be exploited as a medium to promote communism or its ideology," Deputy Higher Education Minister Fu Ah Kiow told Parliament today in winding-up the higher education ministry's allocation of Budget 2005.

He was responding to queries on the subject raised by Jimmy Donald (BN-Sri Aman) and Dr Wan Hashim Wan Teh (BN-Gerik) during their debate in the House.

The duo asked the ministry to explain why Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) has published the memoirs of two veteran Malay leaders of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM).

Fu said an internal probe initiated by UKM was underway and the finding will be submitted to his ministry.

Wan Hashim also questioned why UKM has published the memoirs of the CPM leaders but had allegedly turned down a proposal to publish the memoirs of national hero Leftenan Adnan.

Malay language daily Utusan Malaysia recently published several letters questioning whether it was appropriate for an educational institution to publish the memoirs of the two CPM leaders, Shamsiah Fakeh and Ibrahim Chik. Both books were written and published in Malay.

The two were veterans of the now-defunct CPM and during the 1948-1960 'emergency', they were members of an armed unit of the party called the 10th Regiment which was predominantly Malays.

According to earlier media reports, a five-person committee has been set up by the university "to ascertain if the books were published with certain motives or agendas, or as references".

Gag order on lecturers

Meanwhile, in his ministerial winding-up, Fu also argued that the government allows academicians to speak to the media, but with conditions.

"We don't stop lecturers from making press statements as long as what they say is academic in nature and based on their research, but comments on political issues are not advisable," he said.

However the government has no immediate plan to amend the restrictive Akujanji - or pledge of good conduct - in which academicians are required to adhere to.

Under the Akujanji , it is an offence for local university academic staff to comment on government policies without ministerial permission.

Wan Hashim and Salahuddin Ayub (PAS-Kubang Kerian) have also questioned the government's gag order on academicians, saying that the government should appreciate the views of intellectuals.

No intervention

On another matter, Fu said his ministry will not intervene in the case of 17 Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) student representatives who were disqualified from holding their posts yesterday.

UTM disciplinary panel found the 17 guilty of breaching campus election rules by amending their election posters during the September campus election.

The university did not order fresh polls but instead said the posts will be taken over by the losing candidates who scored the next highest votes in the contested seats.

"We will leave it to the university. We will only look into the case should there be any request from the university," the deputy minister told reporters at Parliament lobby.

"If they had changed the election posters without prior permission, then it should be viewed as an infringement of election rules and they should be penalised accordingly," he added.