Iuntimidation will not lend a hand students learn

When it was announced that the Islamic and Asian Civilization Studies and Titus, of course, will be mandatory for students in private universities in Malaysia, has caused great controversy.

Public universities in Malaysia have the mandate to teach Titus all its students. The move to expand the private universities was controversial because private universities are considered to have more autonomy.

Titus is a course that teaches about Islam, Malay, Indian, Chinese and Western civilization - reflects the ethnic configuration in Malaysia (except the western part). Content is historic, talking about "how we got here '- which should have been covered in high school.

Surprisingly, some opposition members like the Energizer RAFIZ Ramble, not only agreed, but blatantly supported the move, citing the need for greater intercultural understanding in multiethnic Malaysia.

Ironically, most of the politicians who support the mandatory implementation of Titus those who studied in the West - where forced courses, other than integral degree, are unheard of.

Titans debate is crucial because it represents the extent to which the government is able to intervene in the operation of private higher education institutions.

If the government has the power to force private universities such as the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus is to force all students - including foreign students - to do this course, it will erode the autonomy of private institutions and, perhaps more importantly, students.

Such a threat to freedom of the student would be unthinkable in any Western country and is likely to be met by street protests, like tuition fees are raised in the UK. In idle Malaysia, it was met by a lackluster debate.

Without any public debate, seems to be a stubborn Malaysian government set up a business in stone.

Beauty solution

Glaring point of the Titans is that smoke screen for the basic, fundamental questions that bother the people. It is important that we take a brief look at Malaysia structural problems.

Affirmative action policies in favor of Bumiputera - the sons of the soil, a term used to denote the Malay race and the other indigenous peoples of Southeast Asia - still stand, despite being imposed since the 1970s, almost 40 years ago.

Racial inequality in terms of wealth is still pervasive. Speaking schools - a bastion of segregation - are alive and well. The civil service is bloated with one ethnic group. They deserve secondary students are unscrupulously denied places in local universities on the basis of their ethnicity.

In such circumstances, the implementation of the Titans is a mockery of all the ethnic problems that are facing Malaysia. What is taught in the classroom do not prescribe a lived reality.

Instead of trying to initiate discussion of the problems that we have, we urge students to feel they need to accept one another, while knives and still hold in our backs. The real understanding comes only trying to solve our structural problems.