Whither democracy in our varsities?

TWO recent incidents prompted this week’s column: Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman being barred from entering a university for a dialogue session with students at the end of last month; and a town hall meeting last week with the Higher Education Minister that reportedly saw students less than impressed by the responses – or rather, non-responses – from the Higher Education people at the political and civil servant levels.

These two events had me thinking about what I call the “undemocratisation” of Malaysia’s university campuses. They have been that way since the time of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.