Bebalism – Seeking Excellence In Hypocrisy

Emeritus Professor Tan Sri Dato' Dzulkifli Abdul Razak 
Opinion - Bacalah Malaysia 
January 10, 2024

“Excellence without Soul” by Harry Lewis of Harvard College was especially mentioned at the Strategic Discourse hosted by the Ministry of Higher Education over the last weekend held in Kuala Lumpur.

Attended by some 500 academics, the book title must be familiar to many of them. If not the issue. It was an attention grabber when it was released in 2006 with the subtheme: How Great University Forgot Education.  

Later, the subtitle was changed to: Does Liberal Education Have a Future? Putting the issue more defined with the context of “liberal education” as understood specifically in the US. In other words, it is irrelevant to other countries where the genre of education is not aligned to that of the US. Same words, different meanings, even aspirations. 

Like that of “football” in the US versus to the rest of the world, especially Europe! The game and rules are entirely alien. It follows therefore, that the usage of terms like “excellence”, and more so “soul”, can also have a varying context and contrasting interpretation as well as nuances. 

Hence, the framing of the problem as well as the solutions worldwide may not be the  same either. Not one-size-fits-all! To suggest that Malaysia emulates the solution offered by Lewis may be tempting, but more likely to fall short.

Foremost, our education system is far from “liberal” as defined by the US. In fact, the term alone is enough to cause unnecessary chaos that we can do without!

Nevertheless, Malaysians too have often heard of something similar – “pendidikan tanpa roh” to describe the void in the local education ecosystem. It could be understood as “excellence without soul” which is by no means a new concern nationally.

Yet it is not identical because in Malaysia education has its own “definition” as per the National Education Philosophy or Falsafah Pendidikan Kebangsaan (FPK, 1996). Overdue for almost three decades now. Or more, if one goes back to the original version of Falsafah Pendidikan Negara!  

Three decades is three years short of the period Lewis served as a tenured professor in Harvard; including eight years as Dean of Harvard College, and then Harvard College Professor for teaching excellence until 2008.

Allegedly, he was then “forced out” as the Dean due to “behind-the-scenes manoeuvring” for being the effective “hands-on” leader he was. The book being one of his legacy. Indeed, from 2015, he was appointed interim dean of Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences where he set foot as freshman 50 years ago.

Unfortunately, the FPK has no Lewis-like leader and leadership to attribute to. The FPK could easily be our solution to the Pendidikan Tanpa Roh syndrome that has been staring at our face ever since.

Even during the Strategic Discourse, the FPK was not part of the narrative despite being the brain child of the then Minister of Education, now the current Prime Minister. The question that must be asked, therefore: why it is omitted. 

Unintentionally? Could it be part of the “bebalism” (the inability for indigenous and Malay intelligentsia to cope against the colonial prejudices) as referred to by the late Prof Syed Hussein Alatas – another reference  that was recommended for the audience! Syed Hussein was a “hands-on” sociologist who broke the stereotype of the “Myth of the Lazy Native” – a title that remains evergreen within the framework of FPK. 

Simply put, is the omission of FPK, a kind of “bebalism” that we must take cognition of?

While one could argue that “excellence” may exist without soul in the western realm, this    is inconceivable in the case of FPK. The soul (roh) is the bedrock of excellence (kecemerlangan par excellence).

The latter is absent without the former! As much as a digital native makes no sense without an understanding and existence of the spiritual being! How else would digitalisation lead to dehumanisation as many conscious experts have warned.

Of late, economist Nobel-laureate Christopher Pissarides, professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said that “rushing into STEM to get AI jobs, may sow their ‘own seeds of self-destruction’.” STEM like AI is soulless. 

Fast forward, increasingly the phrase “excellence without soul” is now being complicated by the recent event in many other US universities post-October 7. Headlines like, “America’s elite universities falling from grace, shaking its status as an educational superpower” clearly spelt out what “without soul” could imply! 

Namely, the lack of human-centric values based on the nexus of diversity, equity and inclusive (DEI). That is, the lack of moral strength and awareness as suggested by Lewis. This is now lucidly broadcasted when the president of Harvard University, Gay, was “forced out” of office by setting her up to fail (for more insight, watch Youtube clip MSNBC –  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rbIVkM7MJ8

Citing Allison Schrager, “like all of America’s top universities, Harvard has taken on an unhealthy role in the US economy and society. America’s best universities need to return to their original mission: producing academic excellence, not just signaling it,” which is said to be “neither accurate nor as valuable.”

Yet most are falsely and hypocritically given the impression that both are true! Without FPK, “bebalism” is at the root of it all until today!

• The writer is Rector, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)