It must be noted the public universities in this country have always been subjected to the mercy of the executive and lately, their own burgeoning administration. The ivory towers are not built upon the realm of utopia where the sickness prevalent in the society is kept at bay.

We must be careful not to assume that the problems faced by each of the public universities are similar. Sure, they do share some of the same vulnerabilities and deficiencies, but each public institution of higher learning in this country has tried to work its way through the jungle and the mess of our national education system.

In this instance, KS Jomo and Edmund Terence Gomez are probably more marked down as non-conformist academicians than anything else. There is a general distrust of academicians in this country by the powers-that-be, and they (the university lecturers) are cultivated to be opportune mouthpieces of the government rather than viewed as a nurturer of an increasingly knowledge-based global society.

Due to the dependency of these institutions of higher learning on the government (for both research and operation funding), academicians find themselves in a difficult spot when they try to offer their own critical views on national matters.

Our community, as a rule, dislikes gray areas and they like their issues sorted out in clear black and white. Therefore, many academicians (in Malaysia or in overseas) learn from experience that whatever they say will be subjected to a dumbing-down effect.

But problem begins when the academicians are being held responsible for giving people ideas.

The current level of public discourse in this country still revolves around 'who' said what rather than 'what' was said. Therefore, academic titles come in handy for the persuasion and influencing the other members of the society.

Often, some well-intentioned academicians might be used as the government's mouthpiece and be perceived as such without due considerations to what is being conveyed. It could be the opposite, too, where academic credentials are merely being flashed without much real substance to offer.

Point is, the crisis in our public higher education system goes beyond Gomez's outrageous situation. UM's treatment of Gomez and his wife is only one of the many symptoms of the disease that plagues our tertiary institutions.

For every Gomez-like saga in this country, we have many other cases of lesser visibility that eats into the healthy development of our institutions of higher learning. There is a need to look deeper for the rot that's slowly exposing generations of bright young Malaysians to its decay.

Yes, we need a reform in our national education system, but we have to agree and commit to a starting point. There is simply too much political interference in our education and its devastating results are beginning to show. Whither go the integrity, autonomy and quality of our institutions of higher learning?

You cannot have public universities as degree mills and expect to excel. The cheapening of the local certification is a serious issue, and we must never whore our academicians to satisfy political brownie points.

Don't make national education policies by hamming together phrases but instead set time- measured outcomes and realistic goals. Do you know how many national policies do we have that are underperforming works of literature, in every sense of the word?

There is much responsibility to go around and certainly the onus is not on the government alone. It takes a huge collective mindset change and every individual in the education sector must play his/her role.

I feel that the prime minister should take this opportunity to make a high-profile sacking of the higher education minister. He might not be guilty for the mess which he most probably inherited (and some he spiced up).

However, Pak Lah needs to make an example out of someone sometime. So, like our poor NS dodger , it might be a grand idea to slaughter a chicken to warn the monkey. A strong and decisive move by Pak Lah now would signal that he means business (even if he doesn't) and is committed to education reform.

After all, while the economy is priority for many Malaysians, education is the real lifeline of the nation.