Public universities have appealed to the Government to be allowed some measure of academic freedom in teaching the Ethnic Relations course.
Committee of Deputy Vice-Chancellors/Rectors (Academic and International Affairs) chairman Prof Datuk Rosihan M. Ali said academics supported the ministry’s efforts to publish a reference book to ensure standardised implementation of the course.
“However, we also appeal that those in academia be allowed to independently disseminate knowledge in their efforts to produce well-rounded individuals,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Prof Rosihan, who is also Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) deputy vice-chancellor (academic and international affairs), expressed concern that the public might have certain misconceptions about the course.
“The main aim of the course is to expose students to the rich cultural, communal and ethnic plurality that shapes Malaysia,” he said.
“We regret the recent misinterpretation that has arisen due to the inadvertent inclusion of certain unsubstantiated facts in some in-house course modules.”
Are University students matured enough for a course on ethnic relations?
Educationists hope the course designed by a unilateral team will help Malaysians to discuss sensitive issues calmly and rationally.
International Islamic University rector Datuk Syed Arabi Idid said university level students are mature enough to understand the underlying reasons and to have a wider perspective.
On hindsight, after viewing the mob incident in UPM, do you think Malaysian students are mature enough to discuss sensitive issues calmly and rationally? At the same time, I wondered whether those lecturers are competent and rational enough to handle the subject matter. In my opinion, the students are not matured enough and have shown to be irrational thus far.
Maybe, as a better advice and to make it more effective, these lecturers should conduct the ethnic relations course, starting from Barisan National members, in particular, greater emphasis on UMNO, MCA and MIC, who had been communalistic and chauvinistic. It is undoubted that the racial disparities had largely been caused and aggrevated by the three main political parties who had often portrayed themselves as representing a single community, in a multi-racial platform, fighting for the rights of that one community without due consideration to the other's rights and liberties.
Only if UMNO, MCA and MIC is able to shed their communal identity and act and reflect themselves as one Malaysian society and party, calling themselves Malaysians, and not Malay, Chinese or Indians, could we positively have a hope to see a truly Malaysian Malaysia.
Committee of Deputy Vice-Chancellors/Rectors (Academic and International Affairs) chairman Prof Datuk Rosihan M. Ali said academics supported the ministry’s efforts to publish a reference book to ensure standardised implementation of the course.
“However, we also appeal that those in academia be allowed to independently disseminate knowledge in their efforts to produce well-rounded individuals,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Prof Rosihan, who is also Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) deputy vice-chancellor (academic and international affairs), expressed concern that the public might have certain misconceptions about the course.
“The main aim of the course is to expose students to the rich cultural, communal and ethnic plurality that shapes Malaysia,” he said.
“We regret the recent misinterpretation that has arisen due to the inadvertent inclusion of certain unsubstantiated facts in some in-house course modules.”
Are University students matured enough for a course on ethnic relations?Educationists hope the course designed by a unilateral team will help Malaysians to discuss sensitive issues calmly and rationally.
International Islamic University rector Datuk Syed Arabi Idid said university level students are mature enough to understand the underlying reasons and to have a wider perspective.
On hindsight, after viewing the mob incident in UPM, do you think Malaysian students are mature enough to discuss sensitive issues calmly and rationally? At the same time, I wondered whether those lecturers are competent and rational enough to handle the subject matter. In my opinion, the students are not matured enough and have shown to be irrational thus far.
Maybe, as a better advice and to make it more effective, these lecturers should conduct the ethnic relations course, starting from Barisan National members, in particular, greater emphasis on UMNO, MCA and MIC, who had been communalistic and chauvinistic. It is undoubted that the racial disparities had largely been caused and aggrevated by the three main political parties who had often portrayed themselves as representing a single community, in a multi-racial platform, fighting for the rights of that one community without due consideration to the other's rights and liberties.
Only if UMNO, MCA and MIC is able to shed their communal identity and act and reflect themselves as one Malaysian society and party, calling themselves Malaysians, and not Malay, Chinese or Indians, could we positively have a hope to see a truly Malaysian Malaysia.
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