Rejoice students! Soon Malaysian campuses will be radicalized again just like the 1970s. Dr. Shafie Saleh, in his plea for a "second chance" to continue to run our universities, is announcing a radical change effort. A paradigm shift in our universities. A legacy of his possible one-year tenure. A good long-term effort towards replacing our increasingly rude and problematic members of Parliament who do not represent the general intelligence of their constituencies.

Rejoice students! - Just the right time when Suaram is organising an online petition against student witch-hunt; a petition I gladly signed (#53) with a call for a "million signature march" to end all forms of totalitarianism in our public universities. . I agree with my fellow columnist Lee Ban Chen that we need to stop the "efforts towards the 'bongsai-isation' of our students". One should read his column for a good chronology of abuses on the rights of the students.

Rejoice students! - This is a good idea, for many reasons I will elaborate. I want to also suggest a variety of topics for speakers and students to explore and ways the University authorities can encourage freedom of expression. I think my suggestions will not only help our university students become very good public speakers but also speed up the ministry's desire to see that our students will become "critical thinkers" and "good public speakers" as well.

By creating our "Hyde Parks" we can open up the floodgate of "creative expression" and "critical sensibility" amongst our "university students"; students who have either been turned into "cyborgs", chased around in "witch-hunting exercises" or "flown over to Mawi's Fantasy World".

Having taught Public Speaking in a Malaysian university up north many years ago, I'd like to share my views on an agenda that might work.

Let us see if the next minister of higher education can bring Dr Shafie's proposal into fruition, so that we can create a generation of students who are creative, critical, brave, forthright, problem-solvers like those created in the early days of the experimental project called Maktab Rendah Sains Mara, circa mid 1970s. I call upon Ansara, the association of ex-MRSM students to help push for the speeding up of this Shafie initiative in progressive education.

Resolve the contradictions

I first quote at length what the minster said in a recent news report in malaysiakini. My comments are in brackets.

Akta Universiti dan Kolej Universiti (Auku) 1971 akan dikaji semula, termasuk menimbangkan cadangan mewujudkan semula sudut penceramah di institut pengajian tinggi.

[I think this is an encouraging statement that must be quickly explored and implemented. This is a long awaited vision of a progressive, liberal, tolerant society to be reproduced through the encouragement of critical and creative thinking skills. The regime of Dr Mahathir has done so much in killing such critical sensibility in the name of "Asian-styled" democracy; one that uses the Internal Security Act and the University and University Colleges Acts to maintain control over the universities.]

Bagi tujuan itu, Menteri Pengajian Tinggi Datuk Dr Shafie Mohamed Salleh berkata, sebuah jawatankuasa yang dianggotai golongan berkepentingan dalam bidang pendidikan, pegawai perundangan dan ibu bapa akan ditubuhkan.
[Whatever the composition of the committee that'll be advising the process, it must involve those whose have had the experience of being victimized by the repressive acts. I would suggest human rights groups to be represented]

"Telah banyak diperkatakan mengenai Auku. Sudah tiba masanya (dikaji semula) memandangkan ia sudah lebih 30 tahun supaya ia lebih efektif,"
[Good observation! I would venture to say that the effectiveness will come from the guaranteeing of total freedom with responsibility in making sure that the parameters of free speech are not abused nor the government not interfere with the process of making democracy a "lived experience"; on in which the students/citizens are not being gagged for speaking up on issues of significance to the fate of the nation closely tied to theirs.]

Shafie berkata, beliau menerima banyak rungutan mengenai penuntut universiti yang "kaku, malu dan tidak reti bercakap" dan ramai yang mencadangkan agar sudut penceramah diwujudkan semula.
[Students are accused for not knowing how to speak in public and how they have become shy and silenced. I suppose one of the reasons being that the educational process itself has produced them to be as such. We ought to explore the reason for this phenomena mental incapacitation; how is thinking skills developed, underdeveloped, or undeveloped in the process of certain thinking, feeling, and intellectualizing beings we are trying to reproduce. As a corollary to this, why do universities themselves punish and witch-hunt students who voice of dissenting views and who perform acts of civil disobedience? In addition to this, why do universities and the Ministry of Education itself punish lecturers who are critical of governmental policies and who speak up against the systematic stupefication of these institutions?]

Menurut laporan Bernama, beliau berkata sudut penceramah begitu aktif di universiti negara ini pada tahun 70-an yang telah berjaya melahirkan penuntut yang bagus dan dapat melahirkan idea bernas.
[I agree with this. Recall the student leaders we created out of the radicalism of the 1970s. While I was running around in the kampong barefooted kicking my plastic soccer ball in Kampong Melayu Majidee Johor, leaders like Hishamuddin Rais, Dr Syed Husin Ali, Anwar Ibrahim, and Abdul Razak Ahmad were busy running around raising consciousness on issues of poverty, homelessness (squatter areas), and corruption. Dr Mahathir was busy using university students to rally support against Tengku Abdul Rahman. Johnson's America was busy pulling out troops from Vietnam. Our radicals were the visionaries with great ideas that ought to be emulated. Many were jailed without trial for producing good ideas! We must therefore create more of these fine radical individuals through Dr Shafie radical proposal to radicalize the campuses]

Shafie berkata, walaupun pihak universiti tidak pernah menyekat kebebasan bersuara di kalangan penuntutnya sekarang tetapi dengan adanya sudut pencermah itu, penuntut boleh melahirkan pendapat melalui saluran yang terancang.
[I will have to leave this statement for readers to interpret, in light of the witch-hunts that are being made on students and academics alike.]

Explore these topics

I suggest our proposed Hyde Park speakers explore the following issues:

Auku/Akujanji and the continued stupefication of our universities
Suaram petition to abolish the Internal Security Act
Campus elections and the Ideological State Apparatuses
Who to vote for in the next elections, and why
Biotech Malaysia and its consequences on our gene poll and technology transfer
Campaign to Abolish ISA http://www.suaram.net/isa/info_ai_chap4.htm
Understanding how Malaysian Media Control works
Terrorism and how to educate for peace
Globalization and its impact on local cultures
Corruption and its material, moral, and cultural manifestations
Poverty and the emergence of the new capitalist class
Racial Polarisation and its relationship to our political-economic system
Rude Parliamentarians and how they are misrepresenting the voters
Oppressive and corrupt leaders: Descriptions, Prescriptions, and Amputations
The continuing issue of the "Approved (Motorcar) Permit and how hegemony of Mahathirism prevails
Human Rights issues
Child Abuse and the International Labor Market
The real issue behind the "Black/Death Metal" Movement: Education for Creativity and Human Dignity for All
MAWI Phenomena and the propagation of "mania", and the selling of dreams to Malays
Organizing War Protests and how to continue to pressure for change, in Malaysia (without being water-sprayed consistently)
Our national stand concerning the continued occupation of Iraq.

In order for Dr. Shafie's idea to work there should be no censorship of the issue that will be talked about in public. We ought to enforce ethics of freedom of speech as enshrined in the Constitution; freedom with responsibility though. No campus authorities should harass students since this is going to be a directive (arahan) from the Ministry of Higher Education.

I hope the next minister of higher education will see this plan through, a legacy of Dr Shafie Saleh whose brief tenure yield this progressive idea.

Bravo, Dr. Shafie for such a proposal. Let us help you with the details!