Berani dalam Benar: Our education needs nothing less than a Revolution today!
- Dzulkifli Abdul Razak,
April 14, 2025
To be sure, education is a public good closely related to, if not part of human rights! No two ways about it. Historically, it grows out of the need to "educate" the community as part of social obligation, a necessity to create a "civilised" society which is just, fair and balanced as well as harmonious. In short, it is a leveller of society as the ultimate outcome. Pure and simple.
Indeed, the example of the oldest functioning university, according to Unesco, evolved out of a mosque in Fez, Morocco is one classic example until today. It preceded many of the well-known institutions of its kind, like the Al-Azhar that Malaysians are well-versed with. The institution known as al-Qarawiyyin was founded in 857 by a woman named Fatima al-Fihri as an "endowed" institution of learning that caters for the well-being of the community regardless of social status and political ideology. Simply put, it is values-based, moral-upright, service-centric and non-profit in nature. It balances in a harmonious way knowledge and wisdom with action and practice. It was not called a university then, but I would venture to call it Humaniversity, being solely dedicated to nurture human beings foremost, not just human capital. It is not hypocritical in anyway like it is today even at the global level. Excellence without a Soul, in the case of Harvard, going by the title of a book (2006) by Harry Lewis, a Harvard dean (1995-2003). Aptly, it has a subtext: How a great forgot education.
Unfortunately, such Humaniversity is slowly being displaced when Europe "reinvented" it as the "trustee of the European humanist tradition" in the 11th century. Although it still retains the status of autonomy in search of truth and justice via knowledge based on the freedom of speech and action, it is already weaponised as a tool for hegemony and imperialism.
In other words, all educational institutions must inherently be protected from outside, especially geo-political, interference in their role as disinterested custodians of the people. Namely, those marginalised, defranchised and vulnerable. In so doing, it dignifies the position of the community and government of the day in attaining a higher civilisational goal beyond mere sloganeering. The mission is to nurture holistically the human persons rather than rendering them as commercial-assembly line mass products called human-capital as promoted by the neo-liberal ideology. The latter has come to dominate the scene today and pushed many government against the wall given the lack of political will to reinstate "education" as "public good" especially in relation to narrow political agenda to start of with. The latest example of such deficit is as announced by the current US President with respect to education in "making America great again." And Malaysia as this writer argued previously is not too far behind. In fact, in many sense, is ahead of the Trump-like (un)thinking which explains why the education sector as a whole is fast slipping with no clear end in sight. Evidently, it is getting worse of late!
Yet all is not lost, thanks to the vibrant and bold effort that Sarawak will be offering by the end of the year. That is, the long awaited "free" higher education to all eligible Sarawak students! At once, it calls the bluff to claims that "free" education is not possible! Especially, when the education budget has been consistently the highest, but also consistently not commensurating with the performance expected as compared to other countries with much lower budget around the globe. Therefore, there is no question of raising taxes, unpopular or otherwise. Particularly, when Sarawak has singularly taken the lead to counter such current trend.
After all, the issue is more of the ecosystem than often articulated. Starting with a top heavy structure of more than 20 public universities, and more than double that in the private sectors (and counting) for a population of about 33 million! Meaning to say, at least, one "university" for some half a million population regardless of age. With such numbers, just in terms of asset management alone, will be extremely complex and expensive, what is more in upgrading existing facilities to meet current world standards. Worse off, some of them are political proxies and/or for profit entities disguising as bona fide universities housing charlatans of all sorts. We have not even touch on the quality of leaders and staff, including professors (specifically those who do not "profess") to maintain the vibrancy of the highest academic and professional practices expected in leading the future. The recent "scandal" involving a university indicates that all is not well and should not be hushed up as too sensitive in correcting the root cause professionally.
To cut the story short, the ecosystem must first be revised, if not revolutionised. Not unlike how we jumped to implement IR 4.0 then, more recently AI! Only that this time the revolution needs to seriously consider closing down some universities in order to correct the top heavy structure and bring back the ecosystem balance once again. Meaning, those that is non-performing must ceased to exist or be merged to save cost and drastically improve performance by removing administrative and bureaucratic wastage. Similarly, in the selections and appointments of personnel based on due process as well as ethical-moral standards in keeping with the benchmark set for integrity, anti-bribery and good governance by SPRM. In fact, the final candidate must be able to command this standard rigorously. In this way, political influences and cartels - often suspected as "creatively" linked to the roots of scandals and corruption, must also cease to exist. In similar ways, admission of students must follow suit so that their intake is not "creatively" designed to maximise income at the expanse of knowledge and wisdom as the case is reportedly of late.
In summary, there must an urgent honest political will to hit the ground running. Biar akap serupa bikin! The question is, are we ready!
It always seems impossible until it is done Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)