Univ. Malaya: Misjudged Temporal Comparison

A no brainer answer to allegation that UM was at low ebb even decades ago.

Divani
http://taknakghauth.wordpress.com/2012/02/04/alumni-um-tersinggung-kenyataan-naib-canselor/
08/02/2012 at 1:01 pm

Ghauth is either naive and/or stupid. His statement about UM was never any good in particular during Ungku Aziz as a VC merely manifests his inability to articulate let alone arguing as an academician or a professor worse still as a VC. His statement of degrading UM for its past reveals two major errors in his reasoning.

(i) Shallow definition of impact. Publication of ISI journal is no panacea to social problem or economic development which Malaysia desperately chasing after. Impact of ISI publications are limited – mainly in terms of number of citations. Lately – due to demands of this publications, thousands of fake articles have been published by local academics in the west to improve ranking. Unlike before, most of these papers are void of societal concerns. They are churned out purely for numbers’ sake. Very unlikely that these fake papers produce impact on societal improvements.

But, through his research Ungku Azis has revolutionised the savings of the poor to become capital investment to plough back to the rural economy to extricate them out of poverty. His concept of Tabung Haji is one of its kind in the world and it has contributed to a more organised “haj” industry. The tabung helped the poor to perform the haj without becoming poorer after sacrificing their lands or assets to the money lenders to finance the trip. His contribution is beyond billion ringgits worth, but creating an equitable development for the country and bringing the poor into the mainstream of economic activities. Had it not for him, the poor will remain impoverished and victimised by the moneylenders with exorbitant rate of interest. We have not taken into account the multiplier effect of his innovation to the economy.

(ii) Inability to make an intelligent temporal comparison. One is shallow if one uses the standard in the C21st to measure the performance in the 1950s. We cannot say the professors in the 1950s were slow in calculating the coefficients in the regression analysis compared to now. Simply because the technology was not available then. Similarly, he cannot use the ISI criteria on professors in the 1950s as then, they were busy laying the foundation for the future of academic in the country. Steve Jobs did not have ISI publications but he changed the world. So are other great men in human history; Ghandi, Rumi and others. Temporal comparison should take into account the variables in the era that one chooses. Period.

What a blunder.

Minut-init again

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