Kedah Mentri Besar Azizan Abdul Razak said today that he will no longer comment on the Universities and University Colleges Act (AUKU) issue following instructions by his party, PAS, to stop talking to the media over the suspension of the state-owned Kolej Universiti Insaniah (KUIN) students. The gag order which is believed to have came from the PAS leadership was issued after Azizan lambasted his critics who questioned him for supporting the suspension of five KUIN students for organizing protests against the college in May last year.

To the delight of his detractors, especially the rivals from Barisan Nasional (BN), the issue has caused a stir among Pakatan Rakyat leaders who were not too hot on Azizan's comments that touched on AUKU and the Opposition pact's Buku Jingga which clearly states that Pakatan is dead against AUKU. Azizan had last week responded to those who had slammed him for going against Buku Jingga which lists the Common Policy Framework of PAS, PKR and DAP, by saying that Buku Jingga is not the Quran.

The directive on Azizan (left) would be the latest gag order by a Pakatan party following DAP chairman Karpal Singh’s dispute with Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy and vice-chairman M Kulasegaran’s spat with Perak secretary Nga Kor Ming. These gag orders are seen as hypocritical, inconsistent and undemocratic especially in light of DAP-led Penang government’s introduction of the “CAT” (Competency, Accountability and Transparency) policy.

This is not the first time Pakatan have issued a gag order on its leader. Last year itself Pakatan officials were instructed not to discuss with the media the implementation of hudud. Also last year, Selangor Mentri Besar Khalid Ibrahim had also issued a gag order after the Damansara Utama Methodist Church issue cacophony.

Meanwhile, back in February 2009, there was talk of a gag rule in Pakatan when the then Selangor PAS commissioner Hasan Ali (right) clashed with fellow Selangor executive councilor Ronnie Liu of DAP. However, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim told the media then Pakatan would not issue a gag order after all. Following the rift, Liu was mired in a letterhead issue which inevitably produced another gag order. As for Hasan, well, we all know what happened to him recently. Perhaps what Hasan had said is true all this while that the ulamas in PAS are losing grip on the party and that the organization is being overly influenced by DAP.

Looking at the situation, one can’t help but wonder why Azizan finds it necessary for him to get involved in the affairs of KUIN instead of leaving the matter to be handled by the college itself. This also blatantly contradicts Pakatan’s stand on academic freedom by allowing universities and colleges to be independent entities free from political or corporate influence. On the other side of the coin, if Azizan does have the authority as a mentri besar to meddle in college affairs, then why the gag order?

*The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the writer.