A concerned Malaysian writes about Malaysian affairs. "You are the Change you Seek" Barack Obama

Friday, November 23, 2007

UPM's Heavy Hand

This story in malaysiakini is rather disturbing.

A student has had his life disrupted by the decision of the authorities as according to the report
"Lee was stopped by security guards at the university’s exit and his notebook was seized on grounds that he was being investigated for being a member of an illegal student organisation.

The student initially refused to cooperate because the campus officers were not in their uniforms which led to the university accusing him of obstructing its officers from executing their duty."

They spent 3 hours deliberating on such a minor charge that should probably not have resulted in anything more than a caution.

Now a young man's life is put on hold for one year and maybe his career is also jeopardised.

Was the charge proven that he belonged to an illegal organisation?
Does the UPM have proper procedures for the security guards to follow when they want to check students?

One would imagine that security guards should only be allowed to arrest those taking part in criminal activities like theft, robbery and vandalism and not be authorised to intrude into the private affairs of students.

Perhaps he belonged to the wrong side of the political divide. Do you think the university would have taken such action if he belonged to the BN group?

1 comment:

PeterP said...

Of course not!!
Although university students are not allowed to dabble in politics, the rule is only applied to students who are not aligned to the BN. We have seen so many of them campaigning for the BN during the elections and by-elections and no action is taken against them. In fact they are rewarded with more perks whilst this student is punished for using the free will bestowed by God.

In this particular case the action against the student has purposely been punitive and to destroy his future. More like Bush’s ‘either you are with us or you are not’. What these clowns don’t realize is that the world is not a tempurung. Having such insular policies will not advance this beautiful country.

Malaysia, I have no more tears left for you.