Way to go, Tok Pa!

Too often, we blog about our negative impressions of our Malaysian education system and too often, we can get disillusioned at the lack of progress. The recent announcement by the Higer Education Minister, Mustapa Mohamed, who asked "public universities to recruit more non-bumiputra lecturers, attract the best brains, and develop a vibrant academic environment" is definite encouragement for those of us who want to see genuine change in our local universities.

Before we all go negative on Tok Pa and make comments like 'action speaks louder than words', let us look at the tone and language which he used in the Star report.

Firstly, he acknowledged that there was more that could be done to attract non-bumi lecturers.

"I want more non-bumiputras to be recruited as lecturers. The Government has acknowledged there is a need for more non-bumiputras in certain sectors of the civil service. I personally believe more can be done to attract them," he said in an interview.

Secondly, he spoke of personal actions taken by himself towards this goal.

"I hope more non-bumiputras will come into the universities as we need everyone to be involved. I have asked the vice-chancellors to look into hiring more non-bumiputra academia."

Thirdly, he acknowledged that there is a tremendous imbalance in the upper management level of local universities.

"The minister acknowledged that the percentage of non-bumiputras, especially in promotional posts, was low. In Universiti Malaya there is only one non-bumiputra dean among 20. In many of the other universities, there is none."

This is actually a pretty brave step for Tok Pa to take since it might and probably will incur the wrath of some of the top management of our local universities who are keen to preserve the status quo.

So KUDOS to Tok Pa for coming out to make these statements.

Now, for some points of clarification and discussion.

Firstly, I think there's something to be said in regards to representation. Issues of quality aside, even if all things are equal, it is a poor reflection of the composition of the university when there is only one non-bumiputra dean among 20 in the UM, arguably the most high profile local university. What kind of signal does this send to students, faculty members and the larger public? How well can our local universities reflect the "face" of our country, given this composition?

Secondly, and more importantly, the system that is biased against non-bumis inevitably forces out many good non-bumi lecturers and academics from the local universities. Furthermore, it is certainly not a good advertisement for young academics returning from overseas and wanting to join the local academia. I would also argue that this system possibly demotivates SOME non-bumi academics resulting in underperformance - if you're not going to get promoted to a full professor regardless of output, then why work so hard?

So by making this kind of stand and taking actions to correct previous policy, Tok Pa is paving the way for:

(1) A more representative upper management
(2) Encourage good quality academics (esp.non-bumis) to stay within the system
(3) Motivate academics (esp.non-bumis) to perform better
(4) Encourage non-bumi academics (esp. from overseas) to join the system

I'm not sure if it's Tok Pa's proactive stance that is responsible but I recently received an email from a professor at a local university. He told me that in a recent promotional exercise, he and 4 other non bumi colleagues were promoted to full professor positions (out of 18, which is almost one third). And the encouraging thing is that he's only 37 and one of his non-bumi colleagues is only 42. He also mentioned that a young, 39 year old, bumiputra lecturer from the engineering school was also promoted to a full professor.

So it seems that the VC is making the right moves by recognizing young, prodigious talent. The VC of this university has a reputation as a more liberal VC in terms of university policies, including the promotion policies. I'm not sure if the recent promotions is just a continuation of the VC's liberal tendencies or if he used Tok Pa's instructions to promote a greater share of non-bumi academics. I'm hoping that it's a trend that will be followed in our other local universities.

Hopefully, the academia in our local universities will see Tok Pa's move as a positive one, heading in the direction of improving the quality and renown of our local universities and not interpret it as an action of 'home turf invasion'. Time will tell. In the meantime, I congratulate Tok Pa and wish him well!