When the Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Malaysia last week, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad offered Malaysia as a venue for the setting up of the ASEAN-Japan University with Japanese as the medium of instruction and which will stress technical training and information technology.
Koizumi was keen on the idea to train people not only from ASEAN but also from other regions. Foreign Minister Datuk Syed Hamid Albar said Malaysia has more than 1,000 students studying in Japan but it is very expensive to study there.
DAP supports the idea of an ASEAN-Japan University in Malaysia. In fact, the idea of an ASEAN University was first proposed more than a decade ago.
However, the time has come not only for Malaysia to become an international centre of academic excellence, but to become a regional centre of international universities, not just the International Islamic University or the proposed ASEAN-Japan University, but also international universities which could highlight Malaysia’s unique and strategic confluence of the world’s great religions and civilizations, such as an International Christian University, International Buddhist University, International Hindu University, International Chinese University and International Tamil University.
As Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has “parked” himself in the Indera Kayangan constituency in the final lap of the by-election campaign, it would be ideal if Abdullah could make such an announcement before polling on Saturday to prove that the Barisan Nasional government is fully committed to an open and innovative governance which could fully leverage the multi-civilisational diversity and heritage of Malaysia to the country’s advantage in the new era and challenge of information and communications technology.
The establishment of an international university using Chinese as a medium of instruction would serve the national objective to transform the country into an international centre of academic excellence, as Malaysia would be able to tap into the huge and hungry market of 1.2 billion Chinese citizens for international university education.
(17/1/2002)