ON the way to Subang Airport, I passed a huge billboard advertising that Monash University has been ranked No. 44 in the Times Higher Education World Universities Rankings 2023 which set me thinking about the ranking of Malaysian universities.
In 1960, Universiti Malaya was split from what is now the National University of Singapore (NUS) – with its own campus in Kuala Lumpur and which established its own institution in 1962.
The NUS is ranked No. 19 in the Times Higher Education (THE) World Universities Rankings 2023 while Universiti Malaya is ranked 351–400th in the world.
Is the fourth and seventh Malaysian prime minister (PM) Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad worried about the worsening of academic standards and achievements in Malaysian universities, especially as Universiti Malaya was ranked No. 89 and the NUS was ranked No. 18 in 2004?
This is especially so as his Vision 2020 emphasised the pursuit of excellence in all fields.
Dr Mahathir is least worried about the worsening of academic standards and achievement in Malaysian universities, but he is concerned that Malaysia may end up as a Singapore in two general elections.
Dr Mahathir is wrong. Malaysia does not want to be another Singapore but better than the island republic as Malaysia is better positioned to leverage the best values and virtues of four great civilisations to build a new international civilisation for the world.
Dr Mahathir has announced the failure of Vision 2020 to create a united Bangsa Malaysia and a moral and ethical society, but was he the biggest cause of the failure of Vision 2020 as he had been PM for half the 30-year timeline of Vision 2020?
It may profit the country to find out the real causes of the failure of Vision 2020. – March 20, 2023
Retired DAP supremo and former Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang, 82, has a colourful political career spanning 57 years.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
