KUALA LUMPUR, June 30 — The Students Association of University Malaya (UM) today demanded the university explain if it removed a senior lecturer due to political pressure, after expressing suspicion over the official reason for his exit.

Responding to news reports of Professor Datuk Dr Mohammad Redzuan Othman’s termination as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the association’s president Fahmi Zainol called the incident another instance that the institution of learning was being ripped apart by “irresponsible parties”.

“If it is true the Education Ministry and its Chief Secretary II, Datuk Dr Zaini Ujang, is involved, I am certain UM will keep on regressing in tandem with the ‘idiocy’ of some parties,” he said in a statement.

Fahmi pointed out that advanced age, as was officially cited as the reason for Redzuan’s tenure as dean not being renewed, was an implausible reason given that the senior lecturer had readily contested the position.

Highlighting that UM’s Senate chairman was nearly 80 years old, the student movement leader  also said this showed that age was not a good reason for ending a person’s service early.

Fahmi also used Redzuan’s removal to question the selection process for picking faculty heads, noting that the choice was virtually at the discretion of the university’s vice-chancellor despite an apparent election.

Calling the voting process superficial, he pointed out the number of votes secured by candidates has never been disclosed, alleging that this may allow the vice-chancellor to pick those who did not garner the most votes.

“Where is the academic freedom in Malaysia?”

According to media reports today, Redzuan was also asked to step down as director of UM’s Centre for Democracy and Elections (UMcedel) after its surveys on local politics allegedly displeased officials at the Education Ministry.

Among others, it was reported that UMcedel’s surveys on the state of local politics that portrayed the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) as trailing in some areas to rival Pakatan Rakyat (PR) displeased some in the government.

The news led former deputy higher education minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah to relinquish his position as a research fellow at the university in protest.