University Malaya slides in ranking
The latest world ranking of universities shows University Malaya (UM), my alma matta, slides down from 89 to 169 placing. How to explain this deterioration?
Prophet Muhammad ( saw) said that everyone is a leader and he is responsible for his leadership. This teaching is beautifully actualised by Khalifah Umar (ra) who said:
“If a sheep falls from a bridge even on the river Tigris and dies, God will call me to account for it on the Day of Judgment.”
Thus, it is obvious that PM Abdullah Badawi is responsible for UM's problem because he appointed Prof Dr Hashim Yaacob as UM vice chancellor, replacing Dr Anuar Zaini during whose tenureship as UM VC managed to propel UM to 89th placing.
It has been reported in the local papers that there is a lot of politiking, including party politics, in UM campus lately. Surely this will affect, directy or indirectly, the campus atmosphere and performance of staff members and students.
When decisions are made tainted by political, not solely by educational , considerations, the effect will be disastrous. This may be the main reason why Warwick University, a top 10 UK university, cancelled its plan to open a branch campus in Singapore when told that it will not have full freedom in running the university (as reported in local papers)
All these bring to mind another teaching of Prophet Muhammad (saw): when a person, who is not well verse in a particular field, is appointed to a post, more so when the appointee so coveted the post, then it won't be long before failures set in.
Prof Dr Hashim Yaacob may be a competent VC ( after all he performed extremely well as Dean of UM Dental Faculty to propel that faculty to world class) , but when he submits to political interference or when decisions are made tainted by political objectives, then the effects are what we see today.
Politicians are what they are: polticians have no expertise at all in administering a university. So to solve the problem, politicians, please don't interfere in the running, not only UM, but all insitutions of learning.
Let the people expert in the field do the job. Otherwise, wait for disaster to befall, not only our universities, but also our whole educational system.
Abi Abdillah
posted by Abu Abdillah @ 3:17 PM
1 Comments:
Abdullah Badawi should not be surprised at the distortion in the developement of Penang. The Gerakan government is just following the examples set by UMNO.
UMNO, claiming to fight for the Malays, ruled Tanah Melayu, Malaya and Malaysia for 49 years.
In these 49 years just see what happened to the Malay majority states and areas.
The Malay majority states and Malay areas, including Kubang Pasu under Mahathir Muhammad, and Kepala Batas under Abdullah Badawi, are lacking in many things.
UMNO developed the west coast states, like K.L, Selangor, Pinang, Perak, especially the towns, where non-Malays are the majority. All these areas have the basic needs like water, drainage, electricity etc. whereas only about 75% of the Malay kampongs have these basic facilities.
Developement projects are not lavished on Kelantan, as Kelantan is under PAS, despite Kelantan having 90% Malay citizens and PAS is a Malay party.
In RMK9, Abdullah has announced the projects for the South Johor Development Plan and two mega projects, the second Pinang Bridge and the monorail project for the Northern Corridor Developement.
The East Coast Corridor project is given to Petronas. Pray, Abdullah, tell me what specific projects are palnned for the East Coast where the majority Malays live?
When PAS ruled Terengganu after the 1999 general election, Mahathir withdrew oil royalty due to Terengganu but continue oil royalty to Sarawak and Sabah, where Malays are in the minority.
The non-Malay majority areas are flooded with all sorts of educational institutions. Even Sarawak and Sabah have their own university. Not to mention the private University Curtin in Sarawak.
What do Kelantan and Terengganu have? Building of universities in these two states is being made a political tool.
How long ago did the UMNO government aquired the land in Bachok, Kelantan which is now overgrown with sencondary jungle, for the proposed Kelantan university, promised way back in the 80s?
Despite all the developement and educational facilities etc. flooded into non-Malay majority states and areas, the non-Malays are never satisfied and keep saying that they are being treated as second class citizens.
Isn't any wonder that Gerakan in Penang carry developement programmes as stated by Abdullah Badawi? And UMNO-led BN government continues, consciously or unconciously, to rule the country like as if trying to prove that the government is not biased against the non-Malays by concentrating developement projects, educational facilities, health facilities, roads, bridges, drainage etc. in the west coast and non-Malay majority areas.
So, Abdullah Badawi, correct your UMNO-led government before asking Gerakan-governed Penang to do like-wise. Gerakan is running Penang like UMNO-led BN ruling the country!!!
Monday, August 28, 2006 8:38:12 AM
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