By Saiful Bahri Kamaruddin
Pix Osman Abd Ra’ai Osman

BANGI, 20 March 2015 – The National Council of Professors (MPN) which has special expertise and profesional knowledge to advice the government on development is to play a more active role in the framing of national policies.

Its Chief Executive Officer Prof Datuk Dr Raduan Che Rose said it needed to convince the government to have confidence in the organisation to make recommendations to the cabinet.

“We should not come up with projects for the sake of doing, and after that there is no follow-up. I’m not 100% sure that the recommendations we make are implemented by the government. We need to update the statistics,” he said.

He, however, assured members that the government greatly appreciates the MPM members’ concerns and advice.

Prof Raduan was answering questions from UKM professors during his informal meeting and ideas-sharing session with them here today where he was asked whether their voices are being heeded by the government.

They discussed several issues, including the role of MPN as a conscience of the nation, academic independence and financing.

Prof Raduan, who is also Secretary-General of MPN, said it was established to assist the government to run the country because there is enough expertise among the academic staff in all public universities in the country to act as a catalyst for development.

MPM was incorporated as a public company in December 2014 and now acts as the ‘Nation’s Thinkers’. It wants to be less dependent on public funds and become a profesional consultancy service to the industry in various professional fields.

UKM Vice Chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali in his welcoming address at the session urged MPN to use its expertise to help resolve economic and educational issues.

He said it was appropriate for MPM to have a wider role in the administration of the country considering the 14 clusters of expertise and 230 professors that it has on board.

He said the Malaysian Education Development Plan (Higher Education) from 2015 to 2025, seeks to provide a balance of academics and personality.

Besides that various initiatives will also help local university graduates be more competitive, creative and innovative.

Also present at the session was the Deputy Secretary-General of MPN Prof Dr Kamaruddin M Said.