Rafiq Adikan, 47, chronicles his three-year tenure as vice-chancellor of Universiti Sains Malaysia. This is his maiden column for ApaKhabar.
- It has been a week shy of three months since my tenure ended; six candidates were interviewed for the position nine weeks ago. Still no news. When people enquired, I would flatly tell them that my term will not be renewed. I was simply not good enough. And then I would add, with a grin: “Did you know that for the financial year 2022, our University will close her accounts with RM44 mil surplus budget? Back in 2020, she posted a RM60 mil deficit! We made RM104 mil in two years, with Covid-19 to boot’. I was not bragging. And I loved the nodding approvals. The pat on the back for a job well done. The jovial camaraderie. This was not the case three years ago when I was announced as the Vice-Chancellor.
- The petition closed on Oct 3 2019, with 21,712 signatures telling me that I was not welcomed. I was an outsider, considered too young for the job, and there were large shoes to fill. I did not attend an alumni event organised a day after I clocked into my new job, and the following Saturday, a local newspaper published a scathing piece written by a former Vice-Chancellor, criticising my non-appearance, and, questioning the wisdom of my appointment. That was unfortunate. I so wanted to learn from that person; some brotherly advice. A few weeks in, a seasoned Prof stopped me mid-sentence, while presenting my findings about the University: ‘You are wrong! I disagree with you’. Wow. You could hear a pin drop.
- I wonder what you would have done if you were in my shoes, back in 2019?
Me, I played football. In the rain. Scored a goal. Disallowed for being offside. They did not pull favours for the new VC. I was not expecting any either.
- Leaders share none of the glory, and shoulder all the blame. You are a mere vessel, an asbab. You can do 99 things right, and yet get judged by the one thing you did wrong. The late Tun Arshad Ayub, whenever he addresses a group of leaders, would recite a poem found in Tenas Effendy’s book:
Pemimpin dekat dengan umatnya,
Orang yang dituakan oleh bangsanya,
Yang didahulukan selangkah,
Yang ditinggikan seranting,
Yang dilebihkan serambut,
Yang dimuliakan sekuku.
A leader is close to his people,
A person wisened by his nation,
Who is made ahead by a step,
Who is made taller by a branch,
Who is given precedence by a hair,
Who is made honourable by a nail.
This sounds like servant leadership. And servants do not get favours.
- Being prepared to carry the brunt of the blame and criticism was something I developed way back when I was the acting dean of the faculty of engineering in the University of Malaya. I was probably the longest serving acting dean, holding the position for a year and nine months. I was either an exceptional actor that my bosses thought I should remain as such, or was really poor at being a dean that making me a permanent one would be hazardous. Safe people dare – those who have their basic needs fulfilled, afforded some luxuries and safety nets to fail and fall forward, would tend to be more adventurous. When your boss is willing to take the blame, you will be free to experiment and carry out much- needed change. You can be innovative, and when you start gaining traction, you will become bolder. And wiser through mistakes. Your boss answers for the mistakes. Your job is to learn from them, and celebrate and be credited for the successes. I had to do a lot of answering.
- I began writing to the campus community, providing answers, and sharing massive amounts of information, graphs, and reports. We organised townhalls, and online sessions with academic schools and research centres. We analysed and discussed staff pay disparity, student socio-economic backgrounds, childcare, child malnourishment and stunting, financial stability, and many more. This level of transparency was unprecedented and led to some inspiring outcomes. For example, we collected RM1.5mil in voluntary staff salary deduction as part of our Covid-19 preparedness following one such campus- wide discussion. You seldom witness such widespread unity and altruism. We walked the talk. It felt good.
- We never looked back from that point onwards. In the space of two years, despite Covid-19, the University began breaking new grounds. We became no 1 nationally in sustainable development goals (SDG) rankings (4th in the world), international student intake, postgraduate enrolment, income generation, global student employability, renewable energy adoption, e-mobility, experience centre with virtual and augmented realities, SCOPUS publications, Malaysian Research Assessment 1, securing national and industrial grants, community engagement, and many more. Our students represented Malaysia in many global competitions, including coming 11th from 152 competing institutions in satellite carrying rocket launching. Those 11 kids and their advisors raised more than RM200k in sponsorships and funding. Inspiring stuff.
- I mentioned rankings and I know some readers cringed. We never strategise for rankings as we understood that if you are excellent, then performance in these rankings will be a natural outcome. We never forced the issue. We do not compromise our values, but we are pragmatic with external evaluations, to borrow a statement from a Nobel Laureate. Please calm down.
- We were innovative too. We introduced the LIFE programme, a no-exams, all experiential learning beginning school, exposing our students to financial literacy, computational and design thinking, grit and philosophy, genomics and gerontology, and our living laboratories covering ocean, soil, river, forest, water management, and archaeology. Meta-LIFE will expose seniors to topics like meta-verse, block chain, challenging poverty, circular economy, and Gini-index. We were the first university to practice work from home well before Covid-19 forced the issue. We practised gig-economy hiring of academic and industrial fellows, empowered academic schools to set their own annual targets, introduced multiple promotion tracks for academics – research, teaching, clinical, leadership, humanities, and performing arts – a no one-size-fits-all policy, encouraged our administrative staff to attend overseas training and lead central agencies. More than 40 per cent of our middle management are women, and we have an Orang Asli and international staff leading an academic school and a centre of excellence, respectively. It was hard work, but very rewarding. Good tired.
- This article is a tribute to all those who have contributed to the University’s progress. You made the University tick. And, I believe you did so out of your passion and compassion towards your students, and your love and gratitude towards your nation. Your tanahair. I had experienced countless moments that made my heart swell with pride and joy. One of those right up there is when I see my students graduate and move on to greater things. They become upstanding citizens and take their turn in building our beloved nation. Inshaa-Allah. God willing.
I expect nothing in return, not even a thank you. I hope you feel the same way too.
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