Move, an independent organisation for academics and researchers, says the country’s scholars should do more to comment on issues and question the authorities.
PETALING JAYA: Malaysian academics are not speaking up enough on issues affecting the country and its people, says the Malaysian Academics Movement (Move), an independent body for academics and researchers in public and private institutions.
Its general secretary Rosli H Mahat said the academic freedom in Malaysia was not in line with the recommendations of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) .
He said its recommendations for higher education teaching personnel called for academics and universities to have obligations and rights, such as in upholding autonomy, accountability and freedom of speech.
“Academics can criticise the government and comment on current issues, but we don’t see that happening even though Unesco’s recommendations allow it,” he said at the Malaysia Freedom Summit here on Saturday.
He also said current media coverage made it seem as though there were only four or five academics in the country who were commenting on issues such as economics, politics and natural disasters.
“Our academics aren’t vocal enough on issues,” he said.
“When Malaysia sent Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor to space, no academic asked why or what were the results of his experiments,” he added.
Rosli however said he did not blame many academics for not being outspoken, due to restrictive laws such as the Sedition Act and the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA).
He cited the case of Universiti Malaya law lecturer Azmi Sharom who was charged with sedition in 2014 over his comments on the Perak political crisis that occurred five years before. Azmi was subsequently acquitted.
Rosli said another contributing factor was that academics in Malaysia had their research papers published in scholastic journals rather than in the general media.
As Malaysians did not have access to such journals, the impact of the research was limited, he said.
“It would be better if the research is published in local media so that local communities, organisations and authorities can be better informed,” he said.
Rosli said academics needed to communicate their research to the common public.
However, they would be less inclined to interact with the public if it was not valued by their universities.
Last year, the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) had called for policies to bring about greater autonomy among Malaysia’s public universities over their own administrative affairs, in order to make academic freedom in these institutions possible.
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