I refer to Battle on, for change! by Azly Rahman.

He is of course correct to say that our universities need to open up, to offer a broader view of the world, and to promote honest, critical thinking that will enable our graduates to compete at home and abroad. This goes without saying.

But I would also suggest that the recent changes instigated by the Ministry of Higher Education are a step in the direction of autonomy and accountability. Nobody underestimates that this is going to be a long and winding road but at least the situation has been acknowledged and the debate is finally happening.

However, I was amused by his citing of Columbia University's invitation to President Ahmadinejad as an example of raising "issues of global concern... and promoting and continuing the tradition of academic freedom." The normally perceptive Rahman fails to point out the glaring irony (indeed the breathtaking hypocrisy) of Lee Bollinger's (Columbia's president) sneak attack on his invited guest. Rahman, who works at Columbia, would have bolstered his argument if he had reserved a little of his 'rage against the machine' for his own employer.

The tone of Bollinger's introduction of Ahmadinejad was appalling and should be an embarrassment to anyone associated with Columbia. It sounded as if he was taking his cue either from the White House or its lackeys in the American media (many of whom put our own journalists in the shade when it comes to promoting the agenda of corporate America).

The US has tirelessly sought to portray Iran as a dangerous rogue state based on the kind of evidence that brought us WMD, shock and awe, and widespread torture. And we all know where that got us.

Bollinger fell happily in line when he called the Iranian president a "cruel and petty dictator". This unbelievably rude attack on a guest was no doubt reserved for a bearded foreigner. Would Bollinger have given any Western leader (many of them far more culpable than Ahmadinejad) the same treatment?

His ignorance of the situation in Iran (Facts: it has no nuclear weapons nor any plans to make them; Ahmadinejad did not say he wants to 'wipe Israel off the map'; and he did not deny that the holocaust happened) is shocking. Critical thinking? Independence? Common decency? I don't think so.

I look forward to a future Rahman column where he dissects the duplicity, double standards and downright dumbness of his paymasters at the University of Columbia.