Tidak Masuk Akal Kenyataan Menteri Pengajian Tinggi

KENYATAAN KHALED NORDEN TENTANG AUKU TIDAK MASUK AKAL

Akhbar The Star hari ini melaporkan bahawa Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Norden, Menteri Pengajian Tinggi bahawa beliau akan merujuk kepada Kabinet sama ada untuk membuat rayuan atau tidak terhadap keputusan Mahkamah Tinggi baru-baru ini yang mengumumkan satu seksyen Akta Universiti dan Kolej Universiti 1971 (AUKU) sebagai tidak sejajar dengan Perlembagaan Persekutuan.

Khaled dilaporkan berkata:

“Objektif utama pendidikan ialah untuk menggalakkan pelajar berfikir secara konstruktif dan kritis tanpa sebarang sekatan.

“Atas sebab itulah kami merasakan tidak wajar membenarkan pelajar menyertai parti-parti politik. Sekiranya pelajar memegang jawatan dalam sesebuah parti, mereka terikat kepada ideologi parti tersebut.

“Dengan menurut pendirian parti, pelajar tersebut akan hanya mempunyai pandangan orang lain bukan dirinya…

“Sekiranya kita benar-benar mahu memberikan keutamaan kepada kebebasan berpersatuan dan bukan pelajaran, saya tiada masalah.”

Kenyataan Khaled sendiri tidak masuk akal. Bagaimanakah tindakan menghalang pelajar menyertai parti politik membolehkan mereka berfikir secara kritis tanpa sebarang sekatan? Banyak universiti berprestij dunia tidak mempunyai sekatan tersebut namun kerajaan kita menghantar pelajar-pelajar terbaik negara ke universiti-universiti tersebut.

Apatah lagi, beliau seolah-olah terlupa bahawa ada segelintir kecil individu di dalam partinya sendiri yang ada pandangan mereka sendiri termasuk mengenai AUKU. Adakah beliau terlupa tentang Timbalan Menterinya sendiri, Dato Saifuddin Abdullah yang juga Ahli Majlis Tertinggi UMNO?

Kerajaan tidak patut membuat rayuan terhadap keputusan Mahkamah Tinggi ini untuk membenarkan pelajar-pelajar hak yang telah dinafikan sekian lama. Akta inilah yang menyumbang terhadap sekatan pemikiran konstruktif dan kritis yang Khaled nyatakan sebagai matlamat pendidikan.

NIK NAZMI NIK AHMAD
Pengarah Komunikasi
Parti Keadilan Rakyat
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KHALED NORDIN’S STATEMENT ON THE UUCA DEFIES LOGIC

The Star today reported that Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Norden, the Minister for Higher Education said that he would consult the Cabinet whether to appeal against the recent High Court ruling declaring a section of the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 (UUCA) as unconstitutional.

Khaled was reported as saying:

“The main goal of education is to encourage students to think constructively and critically without any restrictions.

“That is why we feel that it is unwise to allow students to join political parties. If a student holds a position within a party, he will be tied to the party’s ideology.

“By just toeing the party line, the student is merely having other people opinions, not his own…

“If we really want to give priority to the freedom of association and not think about education, I have no problem with that.”

Khaled’s statement in itself is beset with contradictions. How is it not allowing students to join parties allowing them to think critically without restriction? Many of the prestigious universities in the world do not have those restrictions yet are far more highly regarded that our universities to the point that even the government sends the our best students to those universities.

Furthermore he seems to forget that there are the few individuals in his own party who have their own opinion including on UUCA. Has he forgotten his own Deputy Minister, Dato Saifuddin Abdullah who is also an UMNO Supreme Council member?

The government should not appeal the decision by the High Court to finally allow Malaysian citizens the right that have been denied to them for so long. It was this Act after all that stifled constructive and critical thinking that Khaled states to be the main goal of education.

NIK NAZMI NIK AHMAD
Communications Director
Parti Keadilan Rakyat