The national shame of Malaysia falling completely out of the list of the world’s Top 200 Universities this year in the 2007 Times Higher Education Supplement (THES)-Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings had been equaled by the scandal that this Malaysian ignominy had been totally ignored by last week’s Umno General Assembly, whether by Umno delegates or leaders.

This shows the superficiality of the commitment of Umno leaders to the slogan of “Cemerlang, Gemilang and Terbilang” and to transform Malaysia into a knowledge-based innovative economy marked by a world-class university system.

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had after the Umno General Assembly expressed his concern about the fall of Malaysian universities from the international league of best universities, but why wasn’t there a single reference to this shocking result in the Umno General Assembly, touted as the most important national political assembly of the country?

Further details have shown that Malaysian universities have suffered a very serious drop in the international league of the world’s best universities.

For the first time, there is not only not a single university in the Top 200 Universities list, there is also not a single university in the separate ranking of Top 100 Universities for five subject areas — Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities; Life Sciences and Biomedicine; and Engineering and Information Technology.

For the Top 200 Universities List, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Universiti Malaya (UM) had fallen out of the ranking, with UKM plunging from 185th slot last year to 309th while University fo Malaya plunged from 192nd last year to 246th spot. Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), which was ranked as the only “outstanding” five-star university in a recent government survey, has fallen to 307th spot from 277 last year. In 2005, USM was in the 326th spot.

The performance of Malaysian universities in the Top 100 lists for the five subject areas are even more dismal, with not a single university making into the five lists although last year University of Malaya was ranked 49 in Social Sciences and 95 in Natural Sciences, UKM was placed No. 62 in Natural Sciences and University Sains Malaysia placed No. 96 for Life Sciences and Biomedicine.

The National University of Singapore (NUS) (No. 33) is ranked among the Top 100 Universities for all the five categories while Nanyang Technological University (NTU) (No. 69) is ranked among the Top 100 universities for three categories, viz: Engineering & IT; Natural Sciences and Social Sciences.

NUS is ranked No. 10 for Engineering & IT; No. 12 for Life Sciences and Biomedicine, No. 25 for Natural Sciences; No. 20 for Social Sciences and and No. 21 for Arts & Humanities.

NTU is ranked No. 25 for Engineering & IT; No. 99 for Natural Sciences and No. 88 for Social Sciences.

Even Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University is rated among the Top 100 Universities for two categories — Engineering & IT (No. 100) and Social Sciences (No. 83)

Malaysians have not be told the real and true reasons for the shocking performance of Malaysian universities in the THES-QS Top 200 Universities ranking. Malaysian universities have been consistent in increasingly deplorable results in world rankings, whether the THES-QS, Shanghai Jiao Tong University World’s Best 500 Universities or the Newsweek’s Top 100 Global Universities.

If the government is serious about its slogan of “Cemerlang, Gemilang, Terbilang” to create a world-class university system to transform Malaysia into a knowledge-based innovative economy, it must end the NEP-mentality in the universities and fully restore the policy of meritocracy and academic excellence coupled with social need to provide university education opportunities to economically-backward Malaysians regardless of race.

All universities should be allowed to enroll the most qualified students, employ the most competent professors and researchers with competitive remunerations and restore a culture of academic excellence and freedom.

One simple test of whether the government is seriously committed to abandon the baggages of past NEP policies to create a world-class university system is whether it has the political will to end the brain drain depriving Malaysia of the best and brightest for the development of the country.

For a start, I call on the Prime Minister and the Cabinet to check the annual four-figure brain-drain of the best and brightest STPM students and Chinese Independent Secondary school students by providing them equitable higher education opportunities at home to demonstrate that the government is serious in wanting to build a world-class university system.