Aliran Monthly 2004:1

Nor Mohamed is regarded as a `fire-fighter�

University operating budgets have been slashed to the bone. Reliable sources indicate that the cuts are of the order of 70-80 per cent of 2003�s operating budgets.

The severity of the cuts will cripple the ability of the already underfunded universities to function.

On top of the cuts, there is a ruling that there can be no new programme � no dasar baru, to use official jargon � that is, no new proposal requiring its own budget line. Universities, facing a rapidly shifting environment and horizons, need to change. They cannot do so by minor tinkering with existing programmes and policies.

There is an additional ruling. This year�s budget cannot be used for purchasing equipment other than equipment required for teaching. To ensure that this ruling is observed, since equipment and consumables required for research are part and parcel of post-graduate teaching, all equipment purchases must have the direct approval of the Chief Secretary (KSU) of the Ministry of Education.

Piecing the university budget cuts with Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi�s call for setting priorities and for prudential spending suggests that the government indeed faces a crunch.

Less crippling, but still threatening to the functioning of academics as researchers, is a prohibition on overseas travel without KSU approval, regardless of the source of funding. There was such a limitation during the 1997-98 financial crisis, but we are told that we have recovered from the crisis. Whatever their rationale, limitations on travel serve to isolate Malaysian academics and researchers at a time when international collaboration is critical.

However, there is a larger economic question: Is the government facing a fiscal crunch?

This question was floating around when the government was pump-priming the economy, and when the Mid-term Review of the 8th Plan suggested that most of the allocations for the plan period had already been disbsursed and spent.

Piecing the university budget cuts with Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi�s call for setting priorities and for prudential spending suggests that the government indeed faces a crunch.

If not, why is the government imposing such severe cuts on higher education, especially when the Prime Minister has made it a priority of his administration to ensure that our higher education produces the `software� needed to manage the `hardware� inherited from the Mahathir era?

Does the appointment of Nor Mohamed Yakcop as Minister of Finance II have anything to do with this? After all, Nor Mohamed, aside from that unhappy episode of costly currency speculation in the early 1990s, is regarded as a `fire-fighter�, the man to call upon in a crunch.

Is your agency or department facing a budget cut?

We would like to hear from you, as this is one area that will not get much of an airing unless the people raise it. Write, fax or email any information you have on this matter to:
Aliran
Tel: 04-6585 251
Fax: 04-6585 197
email:[email protected]

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