VC posts: Transparency and non-Malays please

VC posts: Transparency and non-Malays please
Apr 24, 06 3:05pm

Amid the accolades for the nation’s first woman university vice-chancellor Rafiah Salim, were calls for greater transparency in the selection process and to consider non-Malay candidates.
In a statement today, Universiti Malaya Academic Staff Association (PKAUM) said it had repeatedly stressed that the selection of a candidate to fill a university VC post should be undertaken by an independent search committee.
“We have noted that the government established a search committee to deal with the appointment of the new VC of UM. While we welcome the setting up of this search committee, we are concerned about the limited transparency and openness in this process.
“How were the members of the committee selected? How does one become a candidate for the post? What were the criteria used to determine who should be appointed” asked secretary Rosli Omar.
He said while the process through which Rafiah (left) was selected indicated improvement, much more openness, dialogue and consultation with the academics and its union was still required in future.
Nevertheless, PKAUM welcomed Rafiah’s appointment and thanked Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Higher Education Minister Mustapha Mohamad for being sensitive to the situation in UM and for their efforts to improve the university.
Non-Malay candidates
In a related development, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) deputy president Dr Syed Husin Ali congratulated Rafidah on her appointment but urged the ministry to consider appointing non-Malays to such posts in future.
“I would like to commend the ministry for appointing the first woman vice-chancellor in Malaysia. I hope there will be more capable women appointed to prominent positions not only in the universities but also other public institutions in the country.
“After this commendable move, it is time that the ministry starts to consider appointing a non-Malay as vice-chancellor,” he said in a statement today.
Until now, he said it appeared that the position is preserved as the monopoly of Malays.
“Unfortunately, some of the vice-chancellors who have been appointed in the past do not deserve to be so. They lack the qualities of academic as well as administrative leadership needed of a good university,” he added.
Syed Husin said after teaching in the university for nearly 30 years and more than a quarter of the time as professor, he knew there were Malaysian Chinese and Indians who were extremely outstanding academically and capable administratively.
They are dedicated to their work and not lacking in Malaysian patriotism. It is high time that they be recognised and given confidence to lead some of our universities, he added.
“I dare say that some of those who have been made vice chancellors in some of the universities in the recent past are ‘half baked’. They are not even the best among the Malays.
“They seem to be appointed largely on the basis of their demonstrated willingness to serve as educational cronies to some of their political masters. This has to stop,” noted the opposition leader.
The veteran politician said Malaysian universities needed outstanding academic and administrative leaders.
“They must be courageous to defend university autonomy and to stand against any attempt of political interference, what more control. If this does not happen, university education in this country will further slide to the rot,” he warned.