(Editor’s note: Gerak, which is mentioned in this article, has penned a statement in response to the comment.)

COMMENT | A spectre is haunting our country - the spectre of our academia going kangkong.

In the past there were odd reports of a lone wolf kangkong professor, a phrase the late scholar Syed Hussein Alatas coined to mean a don “devoid of knowledge to the core”, talking through his hat but now they seem to be mushrooming like what else but mushrooms. And poisonous ones at that.

Why else is the higher education minister and Gerak urging our professors to only speak on matters that are within their area of expertise?

Their call is akin to confining the vain and egotistic emperor in the “new clothes” fable to his ivory tower lest his people know he is both naked and thick-headed.

But for transparency’s sake I say, let these kangkong professors parade themselves in all their naked glory! At least for a limited period.

How else can we know who is...