85] Gen M and a university's dilemma

Gen M and a university's dilemma
Azly Rahman
Aug 28, 06 3:20pm

We have a new movement called 'Generasi Mahathir' or Gen M. It is moving and shaking Malaysia's public universities.

With the war between the forces of Gen M and 'Generasi Hadhari', we read about "directives". Academicians with free minds are reminded/cautioned/warned not to attend functions and gatherings organised by those whose support the ideology of Gen M.

Must a university be loyal to the ruler of the day or to its creator who still wants to have his say? The universities must make their stand on the issue of allegiance.

I suppose lecturers will have to abide by such rulings as part of the Surat Akujanji pledge of loyalty crafted during Dr Mahathir Mohamad's administration.

Should academicians show support for Gen M, they will be monitored closely. If enough evidence is gathered of their disloyalty to the present regime, they will be disciplined and dismissed.

This is a major dilemma not only for the lecturers but also for the entire network of academicians who now do not know what to do with their freedom of thought. They face a dilemma as to who to support.

What if we are faced with other waves of change - Gen S, Gen M, Gen L, Gen X, Gen XXL - like those that come in different ideological sizes?

Politicised institution

There is no public university that faces the dilemma of inter-generational war more than Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) in Sintok, Kedah.

This university-in-a-garden is good example of a deeply politicised institution whose unions of academicians are trained not to form independent judgment. Let me illustrate why.

The previous leader of the academic regime was a staunch supporter of Mahathir (photo) - the late Kol Dr Ahmad Fawzi Basri (May His Soul be Blessed) was as exemplary leader who ensured that the hegemony is maintained.

Being a member of Kelab Umno in England and someone who wrote his dissertation on the party's history, he wanted to make sure that lecturers pay allegiance to him so that he will pay allegiance to Mahathir. None dared speak up against the consequences of paying allegiance to politically-elected vice-chancellors.

Under his authoritarianism, the Institute Pemikiran Tun Dr Mahathir was set up, so that the profound ideas of the autocrat who had ruled for 22 years would be intellectualised and institutionalised.

The UUM Academic Union was the first amongst its peers to agree that all lecturers should unconditionally sign the Surat Akujanji.

New allegiance

The current administration is now interested in ensuring that the university pays its allegiance/pledge loyalty to Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Dr Nordin Kardi is an exemplary leader for ensuring that the hegemony is maintained. This is the new dilemma for the university.

What is UUM to do with the Institute Pemikiran Tun Dr Mahathir, knowing that it is an institution created to propagate the ideas of a man who is now out to pull down the current prime minister?

UUM has awarded honorary degrees to Daim Zainuddin (left), Eric Chia (right) and even Mahathir - symbols of corporate-government glory of Malaysia under Mahathirism. Look at what has been happening to these symbols as soon as power changed hands.

We need to deconstruct these conflicting signs and symbols of creations and manipulations. One of these is the Surat Akujanji, an oppressive document that was created to promote totalitarianism.

Should we revise/discard it to state that students, staff and lecturers should pledge total allegiance to whomsoever is in power and to help heads of department?

Nordin should re-read the last two clauses of the Surat Akujanji and decide if these are merely to maintain peace and harmony or if they are the most oppressive symbols of mental colonisation of academicians. Now the academicians are in a dilemma - whom should they support and why?

Review pledge

UUM is a unique case study as it is essentially a Mahathiristic institution built by Kedahans and run essentially by Kedahans. But it is also a 'university' which is not supposed to dumb down its students and lecturers and make them confused as to which political group they should kowtow.

Didn't the vice-chancellors sign the pledge of allegiance during the time of Mahathir himself?

I maintain that the last two clauses, since it is not word of God or divinely-inspired, must be rewritten and given back to academicians to re-sign the pledge.

There is no point in having them pay allegiance to the regime of Mahathir just a few years back and now pledge total obedience to the regime of Abdullah - especially when they are trying to eliminate one another.

Malaysian academicians have lost their respect as organic intellectuals. They must regain their dignity, reclaiming their voice of conscience in a world that is increasingly manipulated by ideological forces hostile to the growth of radical democracy.

What then must we do?

I suggest that the academicians, beginning with those in UUM, should demand a forum to talk about the nature of allegiance, so that the lecturers are clear as to who to support, in order to avoid disciplinary action or even dismissal.

UUM must decide if the Gen M wave should be upgraded into a Katrina-like hurricane or be pacified and sent back peacefully into the waters of Kuala Kedah.