Duty to steer away from divisiveness

IF we look closely at the word “university”, we will notice that the two keywords are “universe” and “unity”. The clear message here is that universities are responsible for generating and disseminating knowledge of universal significance and benefit, and in order to do that, they have to galvanise unity and collaboration not only among academics but also the society at large.

In other words, universities should demonstrate leadership in forging unity. If there are differing views on certain issues that pose a threat to unity, universities should host an intellectual discourse to debate on the issue using facts and knowledge, and not engage in unproductive one-sided emotional outbursts.

It is rather unfortunate that despite being an independent nation for more than 60 years now, our universities are still not measuring up well to such aspirations. Judging by recent events, there are still leaders of universities who have literally abandoned the responsibility to forge unity among our multiracial society and instead choose to divide.

Politicians may have their reasons to capitalise on divisiveness to win votes. Even then, many who are better schooled view such practices as unsustainable. But for university leaders to preach such divisive rhetoric, this would be an unhealthy signal for the future of the nation’s higher education. There are more pressing issues which demand the attention of university leaders.

Admittedly, many of these issues have a much better chance of being resolved if all Malaysians put in their share of contributions. We need a diversity of minds and ideas. This is even more critical for a small nation like ours. We now live in an era where collaboration among nations and people of different backgrounds holds the key to finding solutions to many of our universal problems.

A good example is climate change. No one country can make climate change go away. This requires the commitment of all nations. It is not easy, as we can see from the failures of some of the climate agreements. But do we give up? No, we continue until we reach consensus.

It is no different in the case of forging unity. Yes, many initiatives have been undertaken but we have yet to reach that elusive goal. However, we should persist and not give up. This is where those holding responsible positions must show leadership and perseverance, not derail the progress that we have achieved so far.

We have had many wake-up calls on this but most of the time we took them lightly. However, a recent outburst at our own leading university has exposed a serious issue regarding the conduct of our academic leaders. The episode leading to the outburst was simply uncalled for. It was a case of a top academic abandoning his professional code of ethics. No wonder, we saw the widespread condemnation by literally everybody of the act. Even the university’s own academic association came out with strong statements vilifying it. Only the defunct National Professors Council took the opposite position.

As for the student, he must have done his protest through sheer desperation. He must have done some serious thinking before putting his graduation in serious jeopardy. Not many would have dared to do what he did. Fortunately, the Board of the university has more right thinking people in it (the Board came out with a public statement denying the decision to revoke the degree), otherwise the issue would have deteriorated even further.

The Quran has a verse which is often quoted. This is where Allah basically said that He had created humans of different races, colours and tribes so that they could get to know each other, live peacefully side by side and collaborate for the good of the universe and humanity at large.

Universities are supposed to be the depositories of knowledge and civilised thoughts. Universities should logically be the champion of unity. Literally, all universities have declared their commitment to the UN-Sustainable Development Goals, where unity is one of the 17 goals. It is time that we at universities preach unity instead of divisiveness.

PROFESSOR DATUK DR AHMAD IBRAHIM Fellow Academy of Science UCSI University