Kenyataan Bersama GERAK-PKAUM

KENYATAAN BERSAMA

PERGERAKAN TENAGA AKADEMIK MALAYSIA (GERAK)

PERSATUAN KAKITANGAN AKADEMIK UNIVERSITI MALAYA (PKAUM)

14 DISEMBER  2015

Perbicaraan tokoh akademik, Azmi Sharom dibawah Akta Hasutan akan bermula pada hari Selasa, 15 Disember 2015 di Mahkamah Session, Jalan Duta, Kuala Lumpur.

Pertuduhan terhadap Azmi Sharom adalah satu hentaman hebat terhadap kebebasan akademik dan akan memberi kesan yang drastik terhadap cara pelajar Malaysia diajar tajuk-tajuk ‘sentitif’. Pemikiran kritis akan dikawal dan dicuci. Pelajar kita keluar dengan pemikiran yang ‘betul dan selamat’. Harapan untuk mana-mana universiti Malaysia menjadi ‘world class’ lebih tipis.

Selain dari melanggar hak kebebasan bersuara di bawah Perlembagaan Malaysia, pertuduhan terhadap Azmi adalah juga satu pelanggaran berat terhadap 1997 UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel yang Malaysia sokong. Selain daripada kebebasan berfikir, bersuara, bersekutu dan bergerak, Artikel 26 UNESCO Recommendation juga memberi hak kepada para akademik untuk ‘menyumbang kepada perubahan sosial dengan meluahkan secara bebas pandangan mereka terhadap dasar pemerintah.

Sempena Hari Hak Asasi Manusia Antarabangsa pada 10 Disember 2015, GERAK yang mewakili para akademik Malaysia dan PKAUM yang mewakili para akademik Universiti Malaya, menggesa tuduhan terhadap Azmi Sharom ditarik balik. Para akademik patut dibenarkan meluahkan pandangan professional kepakaran mereka tanpa dibelengu ketakutan dan secara pilih kasih. Para akademik mesti diberi ruang untuk melahirkan pandangan mereka.

BEBASKAN AZMI SEKARANG!

JOINT STATEMENT

MALAYSIAN ACADEMICS MOVEMENT (MOVE)

UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA ACADEMIC STAFF ASSOCIATION (PKAUM)

14 DECEMBER  2015

The trial of academician, Azmi Sharom under the Sedition Act will resume on Tuesday, 15 December 2015 at the Session Court at Jalan Duta, Kuala Lumpur.

The charges against Azmi Sharom is a serious attack on academic freedom and will have drastic effects on the way Malaysian students are thought ‘sensitive’ topics. Critical thinking will be controlled and sanitized. Our students will graduate with the same ‘right and safe’ mentality. There would be slim hope for any of the Malaysian universities to be ‘world class’.

Besides violating his freedom of expression under the Malaysian Constitution, the charges against Azmi are also a serious violation of the 1997 UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel, which Malaysia subscribes to. Beside the freedom of conscience, expression, association and movement, article 26 of the UNESCO Recommendation also confers on the academics the ‘right to contribute to social change through freely expressing their opinion of state policies’.

In conjunction with the International Human Rights Day on 10 December 2015, MOVE, representing academics in Malaysia and PKAUM, representing the academics at University of Malaya, urge that the charges against Azmi Sharom to be dropped. Academics should be allowed to express their professional expert opinion without fear or favour. Academics must be given space to articulate their views.

FREE AZMI NOW!