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Parliament at its June meeting should declare two national educational targets to reaffirm Malaysia's objective to become an international centre of educational excellence - at least one world-class university and an university among the top 10 Best Universities in Asia-Pacific Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang (Penang,  Saturday): Three developments in the past two days should be wake-up calls that Malaysia is very far from its goal to become an international centre of educational excellence, viz: firstly, the admission by the former director-general of Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) Datuk Dr. Hassan Ahmad that the National Book Policy launched in 1988 to achieve a 100 per cent reading culture among Malaysians by 2000 had been a dismal failure, with the number of new titles published annually by DBP falling down to 100 titles each year as compared to 500 in the 1990s; secondly, the opening address by the Education Minister, Tan Sri Musa Mohamad at the Malaysian Education Summit 2003 where the government seemed to have made a major policy concession that instead of the original objective of turning Malaysia into an international centre of academic excellence, the present aim is a more modest one of being a regional educational hub with the target of attracting 50,000 foreign students by 2010; and thirdly, the call by the New Straits Times Press (NSTP) Group Editor in-Chief, Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad at the Malaysian Education Summit 2003 that Malaysian educational institutions should not indulge in fantasies about becoming the Harvards or Cambridges of the East although they should endeavour to become world-class institutions in research areas like tropical medicine, rubber research, forestry and race relations. The greatest disappointment of the two-day Education Summit 2003 was its failure to focus on the 30-year decline of academic excellence and university standards in the public universities and the urgent need to restore, maintain and improve the quality of learning, teaching and scholarship in public universities - as whatever reference to quality and excellence were only in reference to private institutions of higher learning. Although Malaysia cannot have its own Harvards or Cambridges, why can't Malaysia have at least a world-class university if we are serious in wanting to become an international centre of educational excellence? In the sixties, Malaysia's sole university, the University of Malaya, was rated as one of the best universities in Asia-Pacific, probably ranked among the top best ten universities in the region. However, three decades later, it had suffered such a serious decline in academic standards and quality that it was ranked a lowly 47th position out of 77 universities in the Asiaweek's 2000 ranking of Best Universities in the region, with two other named universities, Universiti Putra Malaysia in 52nd and Universiti Sains Malaysia in 57th position. Malaysia does not have a world-class university. Its best university was ranked 47th in the Asia-Pacific. Is our sole strategy to restore, maintain and improve the quality of higher education in learning, teaching and scholarship purely through the presence of quality foreign universities in the country? What is urgently needed is a Masterplan Plan on Quality in Higher Education to ensure that Malaysia does not just become a regional educational hub attracting 50,000 foreign students by 2010, but is universally recognized as an international centre of academic excellence. Parliament at its June meeting should declare two national educational targets to reaffirm Malaysia's objective to become an international centre of educational excellence - to have at least one world-class university and an university among the top 10 Best Universities in Asia-Pacific. Parliament should also veto the Education Ministry's down-grading of the national educational objective from an international centre of academic excellence to a mere regional educational hub to attract 50,000 foreign students by 2010, regardless of quality. (31/5/2003) * Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman