Human Rights Watch today called on the Malaysian government to launch an independent investigation into the dismissal last week of Professor Chandra Muzaffar, a prominent supporter of embattled opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, from the country's leading public university. The letter urges the government to prevent political tensions accompanying the prosecution of Anwar from spilling over and improperly influencing academic personnel decisions.
The dismissal last week of Professor Muzaffar by administrators at University Malaya has been widely viewed both within Malaysia and abroad as a politically motivated reprisal against Muzaffar for his vocal support of Anwar and his criticism of the government's case against Anwar. In a letter to Malaysian education minister Dato' Abdul Razak, the Human Rights Watch Academic Freedom Committee calls for an expeditious and impartial investigation into the circumstances surrounding the dismissal. It also calls on education minister Razak to do everything in his power to keep partisan politics out of the universities and to press for reinstatement of Muzaffar unless there is compelling academic justification for the dismissal.
"At best, the circumstances are suspicious and demand an investigation," said Human Rights Watch academic freedom specialist Joseph Saunders. "A university cannot fulfill its paramount role in fostering free inquiry, rational discourse and open exchange of ideas where professors must live in fear of losing their livelihood for exercising their basic rights as citizens."
The letter was signed on behalf of the committee by Jonathan F. Fanton, president of the New School University in New York and a co-chair of the committee. The committee membership includes internationally prominent academic leaders and scholars, including presidents of Harvard University, Columbia University and over a dozen other universities in the United States, and figures such as Lord Ralf Dahrendorf, formerly of St. Antony's College at Oxford and currently a governor at the London School of Economics, Krzysztof Michalski of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, Ariel Dorfman of Duke University, John Kenneth Galbraith of Harvard University, and Fang Lizhi of the University of Arizona.
A copy of the letter follows.
March 2, 1999
His Excellency Dato' Seri Mohd Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak
Minister of Education
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Your Excellency:
I am writing this open letter on behalf of the Human Rights Watch Academic Freedom Committee to express the committee's grave concern over the dismissal of Professor Chandra Muzaffar from the University Malaya. We urge that you immediately institute a fair and impartial investigation into the case and do everything in your power to ensure that political tensions in the country do not claim academic freedom as an additional victim.
Until his dismissal, Professor Muzaffar was head of the Center for Civilizational Dialogue at the University Malaya. He was also a vocal supporter of embattled opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and, in December 1998, had joined Anwar's wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail in founding the Social Justice Movement (Adil). Since the establishment of the Center for Civilizational Dialogue in 1997, Muzaffar had been employed by the university on one-year contracts, the most recent of which expired on February 28, 1999. Muzaffar claims that he had every reason to believe that his contract would be renewed until he received a letter from the registrar of the university, dated February 18, 1999, informing him of the dismissal. He received the letter on February 23, just five days before the dismissal took effect.
The letter is reported to have set forth two reasons for the university's unexpected decision: economic factors and a government directive calling on the university to optimize existing human resources. According to published reports, however, the Center had showed considerable economic promise in its first year of operation.
At a minimum, the dismissal of Professor Muzaffar under these circumstances gives the appearance of a politically motivated reprisal for his support for Anwar and the reform movement. The appearance alone is damaging to the international reputation of the University Malaya and warrants action by your office. Until the matter is resolved, outside observers will be left with the impression that the Malaysian public university system is one in which important academic decisions are made according to political rather than academic criteria.
To lift this cloud, we urge that you immediately launch an independent investigation of the dismissal of Professor Muzaffar. In the absence of compelling evidence of sound academic justification for the university's action, we further urge that you do everything lawfully within your power to overturn the decision and seek Muzaffar's reinstatement.
Thank you for your consideration of this important matter. We look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
/s/
Jonathan Fanton
Co-Chair, Human Rights Watch
Academic Freedom Committee
