Students' democratic rights should not be trampled upon with contempt

Aliran views with deep concern Universiti Putra Malaysia's action in hauling up students supposedly associated with the so-called anti-establishment group that staged a boycott of the recent elections for the students' representative council at the university.

Such unnecessary punitive action reflects the anti-democratic tendencies of the UPM administration and of other local tertiary institutions.

The UPM administration should treat its students as mature adults, as conscientious citizens whose democratic rights should not be trampled upon with contempt. Students should have the option of either participating in a campus election or boycotting it, especially if they strongly believe that obstacles have been placed to make a mockery of the electoral process.

Worse, UPM's anti-democratic move runs contrary to the very notion of a university as a place where debate, disagreement, dissent and criticism are supposed to flourish.

This obviously makes nonsense of the claim by most local universities that they are centres of academic excellence. When disagreement or criticism by students is met with sledgehammer-type punishment, what kind of values is the university adminstration inculcating among its students? Incidents such as this only expose the monstrosity of the obnoxious and repressive Universities and University Colleges Act.

We call upon the UPM administration to act rationally and intelligently and to desist from taking any action to punish the students.


Aliran Executive Committee
25 October 2005

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