UMNO’s Kangkong Professors have been running riot with their illiterate interpretation of national developments, and the most recent example is the Bernama report yesterday entitled “Local Council Elections Contravene Constitution, An Attempt To Create Autonomy: Analysts – by Erda Khursyiah Basir”.

It quoted Kankong Professor (1), Universiti Utara Malaysia’s Dean of the College of Legal, Government and International Studies, Asso Prof Dr. Ahmad Martadha Mohamad and Kangkong Professor (2), Universiti Utara Malaysia senior lecturer in Political and International Studies, Md Shukri Shuib, to ground the allegations that the “DAP’s endeavour to hold local elections in Penang” is seen as “an attempt to challenge the Federal Constitution” and “turn the Pearl of the Orient into an autonomous states” which “only serve to shatter racial unity and adversely impact nation-building efforts”.

It is sad and tragic that the Dean of the College of Legal, Government and International Studies of a local public university does not understand the Federal Constitution or he would not say such a nonsense about the DAP challenging the Federal Constitution for holding the view that local government elections should be restored 50 years after suspension in 1965, at the time on the ground of threat of Indonesian Confrontation.

Can the Kankong Professor who holds the exalted position of Dean of College of Legal, Government and International Studies explain how the DAP’s position that local government elections should be restored, which the then Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman had promised would be done once Indonesian Confrontation ended?

It is to be noted that the Athi Nahappan Royal Commission of Inquiry which was formed after the 1965 suspension of local government elections to inquire into the workings of local authorities and make recommendations about their future, made the specific recommendation that local government elections should be held.

This was what the Athi Nahappan Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) Report said about a nominated local government system:

“Nominated advisers cannot effectively voice the interests of the ratepayers because they are not answerable to them. Nomination is no real substitute for elective representation. If anything, nomination is an anachronism and a relic of colonialism. It is antithetic to democracy.”: (Athi Nahappan 1968: 99)

Will the Kangkong Professor from UUM say that the Athi Nahappan RCI report was “an attempt to challenge the Federal Constitution?”

And how is the restoration of local government elections an attempt to “turn the Pearl of the Orient into an autonomous state”? Is the UUM Kangkong professor suggesting that Penang was an “autonomous state” from 1957 to 1965 when local government elections was suspended?

I really the pity the undergraduates taking courses under such a Kangkong Professor who clearly has minimal understanding of the Federal Constitution, Government and International Affairs!

Then we have Kangkong Professor 2, who made the wild allegation that the attempt to restore local government elections was “an attempt to shatter racial unity” which will adversely impact nation-building efforts.

Does he know what he is talking about?

These are people who claim that restoration of local government elections would only involve city folk and the Chinese and the rural folks and Malays would not be affected, resulting in racial polarization.

These are real kangkong professors for they don’t even follow the latest news, discussions and trends, whether the printed word or on the social media!

Could the UMNO Kangkong Professors dispute that the restoration of local government elections, under the present arrangement, would involve 148 local government authorities, 90 per cent of which have Malay majorities of over 50% of the population, while only two per cent or three of the 148 local authorities have Chinese majorities, leaving a balance of 13 with plurality of races – seven of which are Chinese dominant and six Malay dominant?

With these facts and figures, these Kangkong Professors are demonstrating that they do not have a shred of intellectual honesty and integrity by continuing to claim that restoration of local government elections would only involve city folks and the Chinese and not the rural folks and the Malays?

There are a total of 12 local authorities in Kelantan, ranging from the lowest of 92% Malays in Kuala Krai to the highest of 99.7% Malays in Dabong.
Terengganu has seven local authorities, ranging from the lowest of 95.2% Malays in Kemaman to the highest of 99.7% Malays in Setiu.

Are these UMNO Kangkong Professors seriously suggesting that “city folks and the Chinese” will be the only ones involved in the restoration of local government elections for Kelantan and Terengganu, when they are overwhelmingly Malays, ranging from 92% to 99.7% in the 12 local authorities in Kelantan and from 95.2% to 99.7% for the seven local authorities in Terengganu?

The UMNO Kangkong Professors may think that they can continue to deceive the rakyat with lies and distortions to serve their political masters, but I have greater confidence in the ability of the rakyat in the information age to sift truth and facts from lies and falsehoods.

I am not so much concerned about the ability of the UMNO Kangkong Professors to mislead the rakyat with their lies and distortions.

My concern is that with the rapid multiplication of these UMNO Kangkong professors and their illiterate interpretation of national developments, Malaysia’s university rankings can only plunge further south without hope of restoring our former world-class university status.