KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 29 — Umno is desperate and
resorting to physical threats to intimidate undergraduates from pushing
for greater academic freedom and taking an active role in politics,
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said.
“While the awareness of academic freedom is growing and maturing
among undergraduates, the Umno leadership is becoming increasingly
vicious and restive in facing this push and is acting blindly in an
apparent physical threat that is rude and reckless,” the PKR leader said
in a statement late last night.
“Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s commitment to purportedly amend section 15
of the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA) and give more
academic freedom to undergraduates in partisan politics is nothing more
than empty talk,” he added.
The de facto head of the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) opposition pact urged
the ruling Barisan Nasional’s (BN) lynchpin party to quit pressuring
undergraduates following recent news reports concerning student activist
Adam Adli Abdul Halim.
The 21-year old student at the Sultan Idris University of Education
(UPSI) hit headlines after he was purportedly caught lowering a banner
bearing the likeness of Prime Minister Najib from a flagpole outside
Umno’s headquarters here on December 17.
Adam Adli claimed to have received death threats and was allegedly punched by a policeman following the incident.
His university administration has also issued a show-cause letter to
him for tarnishing the institution’s name, according to UPSI
Undergraduate Solidarity chairman Ahmad Syukrie Che Abd Razab as cited
in a Bernama Online report.
Anwar said Umno-owned media had highlighted the incident “as if it
were a major crime while defamation, death threats, crime and corruption
are often marginalised”.
“The development involving Adam Adli… now facing action under the
UUCA shows Umno’s apparent fear towards the rise of undergraduates,”
Anwar said.
“The act to punish, by using the UUCA, undergraduates after the
incident clearly shows it is aimed to scare and as a move to weaken
their spirit and commitment,” he added.
The 64-year-old — a known firebrand student activist in his day who
was detained for 20 months in 1974 under the Internal Security Act (ISA)
— said university authorities have taken similar harsh action against
students in past cases, including expelling them from campus.
He repeated his opposition pact’s commitment to repeal the UUCA and
focus on raising the quality of education based on academic freedom and
intellectual strength should it take Putrajaya.
credit: yahoo news
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