I AM proud that my former colleague Prof Datuk Dr Mohammad Agus Yusoff from the department of political science in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) is part of the 70 academics who have endorsed Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the country’s 10th prime minister.
Agus in an interview said he thinks that Pakatan Harapan (PH) under the leadership of Anwar offers the best opportunity for Malaysians to be united under one political umbrella.
Anwar with his expertise and exposure offers the best opportunity for all Malaysians to build the country and at the same time defend the interests of Malays and Muslims.
However, the collective stand taken by the retired professors has perturbed the Education Ministry.
In a thinly-veiled warning, the Ministry said that while it respects the right of academics to their views, as civil servants they are, however, subject to rules and regulations that forbade them from taking part in political activities.
Meanwhile, spineless group of academics called the National Professor’s Council (NPC) had come out in opposition to the academics who are throwing their weight around Anwar.
It commented that since members of the group are retired academics, they cannot affix the title of “professor” to their names.
Retired academics can use the title if they were recognised with the title of professor emeritus.
Since then, two academics who were listed in the group of 70 had withdrawn their names in support of Anwar. They are from the National Defence University (NDU) and UKM.
They were probably under pressure from the authorities of their respective universities to delink their names from the Group of 70.
Even if there are other withdrawals under pressure, this is the first time in history that academics have come together to support the opposition coalition under Anwar’s leadership.
Academics in public universities, being conservatives and pro-Barisan Nasional (BN), never had the moral courage to come out in the open to support the opposition.
Such a bold support for Anwar is indicative of the broader and more sweeping changes that present elections are going to encourage.
I was an academic in UKM for 25 years.
While students and academics were not necessarily pro-government, the administration of the university was.
Under the threat of the application of Universities and Colleges Act of 1971, opposition in universities was throttled.
There was never an occasion that the Group of 70 academics – whether retired or otherwise – would band together for the larger betterment of the country by supporting PH or their choice of Anwar as future prime minister.
These academics are reading in between the lines as to which coalition has the possibility of coming to power.
Numerous predictions and surveys have demonstrated that PH will win the most number of seats, followed by Perikatan Nasional (PN) and BN.
I am glad that the Group of 70 has endorsed Anwar’s leadership – such an unprecedented move must have been a slap in the face for the NPC.
This group has existed for some time now, acting as moral force in support of government policies and in return, the government had rewarded them with academic promotions, among others.
The emergence of the Group of 70 academics is a direct affront to the NPC and it has shown that the NPC is not the sole representative of the academic community in the country.
Such a division in the academic community augurs well for the development of the universities especially in the pursuance of democracy and critical thinking. – Nov 18, 2022
Prof Ramasamy Palanisamy is the state assemblyperson for Perai. He is also deputy chief minister II of Penang.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Main photo credit: Malaysiakini
