Received on 7 May 2001

I am very encouraged by some alumni taking such a forward view of iNantah, thinking about its organization and names for its constituent colleges. But I want to emphasize that iNantah is going to be a very different institution than the one we all love so much. The reason is that it has no territory, even though it may have a registered campus. It is also different from the iDepartments that are attached to established universities. iNantah is truly "in the air", without any root, anything to lean on.

This is to say, we cannot expect anyone to naturally come to iNantah, even though a person may have had prior association with Nantah. This calls for a very serious examination of our role, objective, and modus operandi, in order not to be "blown away". We have to define what are our current strengths, and what kinds of students are we catering to. We must be able, in the world of distance education, internet courses, etc. to compete effectively to stay "in the air".

For this reason, we must first and foremost discard our traditional thinking about the university, especially our alma mater. We must recognize that that organization is out-dated, and will not function effectively in the new world of information technology, which gives absolute freedom of choice to students.

I have at the moment no ready answer. But I think we must seriously study the question before we do anything else. And this study can begin now, through e-mail, organizing regional group meetings, etc.., until we come up with a proposal for discussion at the Sabah Meeting.

Editor: On 12 April 2001, Dr Ven Yee Foo sent email to Effie Goh of the 2002 Sabah Reunion Organization Committee to request for the inclusion of a discussion on Internet Nantah in the Agenda. Effie acknowledged the receipt of the email.

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