DAP calls for suspension and review  of the requirement on lecturers and  students of public universities to take a  pledge of “loyalty to the  government” as to  it will end up  in creating a mediocre nation of sheep  or  robots instead of creative and critical minds and talents necessary for  the success of  a K-economy and information society

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Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang

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The first pledge in the “Aku Janji” of good conduct being imposed on all  the lecturers and the 200,000  undergraduates in all the  public  universities states: “I shall at all times give my loyalty to the Yang  di-Pertuan Agong, the country and the Government”.

There is no controversy to the pledge of loyalty to the Yang di Pertuan  Agong and the country but the inclusion of the pledge of “loyalty to the government” is most debatable and questionable  as to whether  it is in the  best interest of the nation as “loyalty to the government” may not necessary be in consonance and may even be in conflict with “loyalty to the Yang di Pertuan Agong and the country”.

Will a lecturer or undergraduate who criticises any government policy or  measure, whether in terms of implementation or merit, be regarded as  lacking in “loyalty to the government” and open to disciplinary action including suspension and dismissal?

Do we want only sycophants in the public universities and are we trying to  create a docile, passive and submissive academia and nation - which is the  recipe for a nation of sheep and mediocrity?

The status of university lecturers and students cannot be equated to that  of the civil service, which owes a  loyalty to the government of the day,  irrespective of political party as it is imperative that civil  servants, whatever their private political views, should maintain their political  neutrality under one political party or another.

Higher education, however, is a completely different pursuit  from the civil service and the notion of pledge of loyalty to the government as distinct from loyalty to King and country is completely alien to the notions of academic freedom, autonomy, responsibility and ethics which have been accepted as part of the universal human rights of mankind in the 21st century.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) World Declaration on Higher Education for the 21st Century 1998, for instance, on the  “ethical role, autonomy, responsibility and anticipatory function” of universities spelt out six roles for   higher education institutions and their personnel and students, viz:
 

• preserve and develop their crucial functions, through the exercise of ethics and scientific and intellectual rigour in their various activities;
• be able to speak out on ethical, cultural and social problems completely independently and in full awareness of their responsibilities, exercising a kind of intellectual authority that society needs to help it to reflect, understand and act;
• enhance their critical and forward-looking functions, through continuing analysis of emerging social, economic, cultural and political trends, providing a focus for forecasting, warning and prevention;
• exercise their intellectual capacity and their moral  prestige to defend and actively disseminate universally  accepted values, including peace, justice, freedom, equality and solidarity, as enshrined in UNESCO’s Constitution;
• enjoy full academic autonomy and freedom,  conceived as a set of rights and duties, while being fully responsible and accountable to society;
• play a role in helping identify and address issues  that affect the well-being of communities, nations and global society.

The Aku Janji pledge of “loyalty to the government” will be tantamout to Malaysia repudiating the UNESCO  World Declaration on Higher Education for the twenty-first Century: Vision and Action (1998).

Is the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam)  prepared to invoke powers under the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia Act 1957 to advise the government and to conduct an inquiry into the Code of Good Conduct being made mandatory on all lecturers and students of all public universities and to examine it in the light of the World Declaration on Higher Education for the 21st Century?

(7/2/2002)