KUALA LUMPUR – Universiti Malaya’s (UM) fiasco of hosting US academician Bruce Gilley as an invited speaker is regrettable, but must not be used as a reason to place more curbs on academic freedom, the institution’s Academic Staff Association (PKAUM) said.
The group condemned the speech by Gilley in which he accused Malaysia of wanting a “second holocaust against the Jews” and supported the swift action to cancel his remaining sessions at the university.
“Rightly, the university management is also tightening the policies, procedures and guidelines to regulate events to prevent a repeat of similar incidents.
“While PKAUM agrees that careful scrutiny of the background of speakers is needed… there is a fine line to be drawn to ensure that academic freedom is allowed to thrive.
“PKAUM is concerned that as a backlash, the academic freedom and autonomy of the university will be further eroded. We appeal to the Ministry of Higher Education and our prime minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to uphold academic freedom and the sanctity of the institutions of higher learning to advance knowledge,” the group said in a statement.
It reminded Anwar that as opposition leader in 2014, he had been banned from speaking at an event in UM.
Earlier this week, Gilley delivered a guest lecture at UM, after which he posted an excerpt of his speech in which he made the inflammatory claim against Malaysia and also said the country would never be a “serious player in world affairs”.
After getting slammed on social media, he subsequently posted that Malaysia was unsafe, and that he had managed to leave the country and escape “the Islamo-fascist mob whipped up by the government”.
PKAUM said it was “abhorrent to have advocates of Western colonialism or racists to be given air time” and to make unsubstantiated claims that reflect “shoddy scholarship”.
“It is a gross misrepresentation to equate Malaysia’s stance to oppose genocide in Palestine with the extermination of the Jews,” PKAUM added, noting that there are Jews who are also opposed to the genocide in Palestine.
UM has since apologised and vowed to tighten procedures regarding guest speakers after swiftly cancelling Gilley’s remaining engagements.
After the outcry, including calls for heads to roll at UM, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Zambry Abd Kadir said the government’s response was not aimed at curbing academic freedoms.
“I have never interfered (in the organisation of academic programmes), but this is not academia-related. it is about a statement by an outsider about the nation’s safety, stance, and image,” Zambry said. – April 27, 2024