THE RISE OF THE INTELLECTUAL MORONS .....AND DON'T BLAME THEM FOR THAT AS THE MORONIC EDUCATION POLICIES HAVE CREATED THEM AS SUCH!

by Kee Thuan Chye, Malaysian Digest

MALAYSIAN university students must surely realize that they have more power now than they have ever had in the last four decades. This accounts for their robust participation in politics in recent days. Not only in university campuses, but also in the public sphere.

Suppressed for nearly four decades by the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA), introduced in 1971 because the ruling party feared the rise of student activism, today’s students are breaking out.

The political landscape that emerged from the March 8 phenomenon has no doubt been an encouraging factor. Inspired by the aspiration of a more politically aware rakyat demanding greater democracy, students have been challenging university and government authorities by taking part in political activities they are banned from doing so by the draconian UUCA.

Their defiance has now been augmented by the revolutions spearheaded by youths in the Arab world. Like the Tunisians, Egyptians, Libyans and others, they want democracy, social and political justice. They want to reclaim their right as citizens to take part in the political process. And rightly so.

Indeed, it can be argued that the UUCA contravenes Article 10 of the Federal Constitution, which allows for freedom of speech and expression, and freedom of association. The Constitution does provide for the control of freedom of association but only on certain grounds, like the protection of national security, public order or morality. Political participation is not one of these grounds.

It doesn’t make sense anyway that university students are being deprived of their right to be politically involved when other Malaysian youths enjoy that right. In fact, it’s grossly unfair. Just the other day, a newspaper carried a story about a 20-year-old who had his barber design a Barisan Nasional symbol on his scalp. Any university student caught doing that could have been hauled up to face discipline. Or perhaps not if he sports a BN icon.

Until the recent amendments to the Act, such a student could even have been dragged to court and faced the possibility of a jail sentence.

Last May, four Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) students were charged by their university under the UUCA for showing sympathy or support for Pakatan Rakyat when they were found in possession of the coalition’s campaign materials during the Hulu Selangor by-election. It was, to say the least, pitiable.

Malaysian universities are what they are today because the UUCA not only prohibits students from expressing political opinion publicly and being members of political parties; it also bars them from joining any society outside of their university without the written consent of their Vice-Chancellor. This is too extensive a ban; and it is this that gives the Act a bad name.

Given this massive constraint, how can we expect our students to take part in activities within the larger community and widen their horizons? How can they be expected to be thinking beings with an informed world-view? How then can we have world-class universities?

The Malaysian university students of the 60s and early 70s were so different. Progressive and aware of their social responsibilities, they engaged in the issues of the day. They rallied for the poor of Teluk Gong, Tasik Utara and Baling, and marched for other causes. They demonstrated against the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviets and the oppression of Muslims in Pattani, and spoke up for plight of the Palestinians. It was part of their own education.

But the student movement came to an end when amendments to the UUCA were bulldozed through Parliament in 1975. Mahathir Mohamad was then the Minister of Education. Students responded by holding mass demonstrations in 1976 at the MARA Institute of Technology to protest against the amendments. Guess who then threatened to revoke their scholarships and thereby managed to break them up?

After that, universities were reduced to “glorified high schools”. More than shutting up the students, the UUCA curbed their intellectual freedom and sense of curiosity. What took root was a culture of obeisance and coconut-shell mediocrity and the prioritizing of passing exams above all else. The academic staff were negatively affected as well. Lecturers who tried to promote independent thinking and free speech among their students found themselves to be a dwindling minority.

The most insidious outcome of all this was the cultivation of a breed of academics who to find favor with the Establishment perpetuated the closing of the Malaysian student mind once they got into influential positions. It epitomizes the tragedy of Malaysian academia.

It could only have happened under a government that ruled with a strong mandate and, of course, a government that preferred to keep university students mute and under its thumb.

But the times, they are a-changin’, and the Government must now realize that it had better start swimmin’ or it’ll sink like a stone. The recent victories of the Pro-Mahasiswa group, said to be anti-Establishment, in a number of campus elections should cause the political rulers some concern.