COMMENT | Political chokehold on education system must end

COMMENT | At the end of every academic year, the media publicises the number of PhD graduates, focusing mainly on public universities.

The reports are always in praise of the new graduates, and of the universities that awarded them their degrees. No doubt, many of these newly crowned PhDs deserve these awards.

But not most of them.

On the flip side, the Malaysian public is very used to cringe-worthy PhD holders who are quoted or interviewed by our media, on either domestic politics or international affairs.

The media is probably under the impression that these academics with a PhD, and who are Associates or full Professors, must be highly capable of sound analyses.

After all, many of them have administrative positions in their faculty and may teach at one of Malaysia’s top research universities. Therefore, “so-and-so” might be the right academic to interview.

It would be another matter if our reporters read the lecturer’s publications before seeking their opinion or checking to see if they have commented intelligently in previous public interviews or talks.

But for the most part...