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USM deputy vice chancellor of students affairs Dr. Jamaludin Mohaiadin should be removed as he has proved to be a  Barisan Nasional stooge totally  incapable of being non-partisan and neutral to encourage students to think for themselves and decide who to choose in the campus elections


Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang

(Petaling JayaThursday): The Universiti Sains Malaysia deputy vice chancellor of student affairs Associate Professor Datuk Dr. Jamaludin Mohaiadin should be removed as he has proved to be a Barisan Nasional stooge totally incapable of being non-partisan and neutral to encourage students to think for themselves and decide who to choose in the campus elections. 

New Straits Times today reported Jamaludin as saying that  university students should support the Government in the campus elections  and that the students’ votes should reflect their support for the Government. 

He said: “The Government owns the university, and the university is run according to the Government’s policy. So, it would not be right to support the Opposition”. 

He added that since the student representative council (SRC) acted as a bridge between students and the university, electing SRC members who were not pro-government would be counter-productive. 

It is shocking and outrageous that an academician who has become both a Datuk and a Professor could not understand the most rudimentary meaning of free elections whether in campus or in the larger society  that it raises the question whether Jamaluddin is one of the “Professor-Professor  Kangkong”  which is the  unique product  of the Malaysian system of tertiary education. 

Two issues are at stake:  Firstly, what is the use of conducting campus elections if there is no room for  freedom of choice with students voting against the so-called “government candidates” regarded as akin to being  unpatriotic, disloyal or ungrateful to the government for providing them with the opportunity to enter the university – forgetting that in the final analysis, it is the taxpayers and the people of Malaysia and not the government leaders of the day who are the real stakeholders and owners of the university. 

Secondly, how can the deputy vice chancellor of students affairs act so blatantly to openly campaign for the slate of “government” candidates? 

Jamaluddin knows where his bread is buttered, but he should at least act with greater restraint, decency and decorum and not flaunt Barisan Nasional government line in the university, making him no different from  a Barisan Nasional stooge.

(4/9/2003)


* Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman