University students are old enough to analyze things. Excessive regulations will only suppress their developmental potential.

The Higher Education Ministry’s “Guidelines for Entertainment Activities (Concerts) in Higher Education Institutions” has caused a big stir at local university campuses ever since they were first made known to the public, thanks to the unbelievably conservative content.

It is unbecoming that in our modern world of 21st century, the Malaysian society has not progressed towards more openness but has regressed to conservatism of past century.

Under the new guidelines, invited artistes sporting long hair must have their hair tied up; male artistes are prohibited from wearing necklaces, earrings, bracelets, or shorts while performing on the stage; artistes and dancers must be decently attired and there should be no physical contacts between male and female dancers; concerts held at night must start latest by 8.45 p.m. and end not later than 10.45 p.m.…

The scope covered by the “Guidelines” appears to be a little too broad, from the content of the show to the attire of artistes and concert timing, but what is more frustrating is that even the audience is subjected to some form of control: no mosh pit for standing spectators; and seating for male, female and family audiences must all be separate, among other new rules. This means that men and women must be seated separately, which is not any different from the audience seating now in force in Terengganu’s cinemas!

We are already in a new millennium where EVs are an increasingly ubiquitous streetscape; the rich and famous are planning imminent space tours; breakthroughs in AI development are threatening human workers’ rice bowls…

Even when the world is taken over by explosive new technologies, it is peculiar that the Higher Education Ministry’s “Guidelines” have taken a massive step backward, forcibly transporting our new-age varsity students back in time to those bygone years of authoritarianism.

What kind of university students is our ministry planning to groom them into?

As s matter of fact, the ministry has come up with the “Guidelines” largely as a consequence of an incident during a concert held at a local public university a couple of months ago, in which a bare-chested male spectator dancing triggered a huge public furor.

Back then the authorities issued an instruction banning public universities in the country from organizing any concert activity before a risk assessment is conducted by the school authority.

But the thing is, the incident was just an isolated case which did not warrant a sweeping action which is seen as being way too rigid and conservative.

The Higher Education Ministry’s “Guidelines” is anything but reasonable, and a powerful public backlash is therefore within everyone’s expectation.

Many politicians have since stood up against the “Guidelines” while the Universiti Malaya Association of New Youth (Umany) has initiated a crowd-funding campaign to file a judicial review to challenge the ministry’s directives.

Additionally, Hua Zong has also expressed regret over the “Guidelines.” Its president Goh Tian Chuan hopes the irrational guidelines could be withdrawn under the intervention from the minister and government, or else it is not impossible that a new guideline requiring male and female students to attend classes separately will be released in not-too-distant future.

Higher Education Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin insisted that the “Guidelines” had yet to be approved.

There are talks that these “Guidelines” were the work of the Little Napoleons in his ministry, not because the Unity Government is becoming increasingly conservative.

If this is the case, then the minister must take swift action to penalize the culprits.

There are also talks that the Unity Government is pitted against Perikatan Nasional in Islamization in a bid to win the hearts of conservative Malay voters.

Put it this way, there is no way the Unity Government can outdo the opposition in Islamization, and PN’s supporters will never cross the line just because of the government’s “separate seating” ruling.

On the contrary, the Unity Government will see its support from university students dwindling because of this retrogressive policy.

It doesn’t really matter now whether this whole thing has been the work of Little Napoleons or they have taken instructions from their boss. What matters now is that such an antiquated policy does not fit into our modern society and must be retracted at once.

What we can’t understand is that while on the one hand the authorities have repeatedly vowed to empower the undergraduates and value their views and needs, on the other hand they have been treated as primary school students who must be bound by the multitude of rigid rules and regulations.

We have already lowered the voting age to 18 because we believe an 18-year-old is mentally mature enough to cast his or her vote wisely for the nation’s future. But why should we be worried about male and female students sitting together in a concert?

University students are old enough to analyze things. Excessive regulations will only suppress their developmental potential.

As the world is progressing, we cannot afford to let our universities go backward.