It looks like Universiti Sains Malaysia is once again in the limelight for a wrong reason. This time it is about the university authorities' aim at barring its Chinese Language Society from holding its annual general meeting unless the latter agrees to certain conditions imposed on it.

I find it detestable that a students' society on campus is denied its legitimate right to have an important meeting just because it apparently went against the university's directive not to participate in an inter-varsity Chinese language debate competition in Singapore. Do I smell a tinge of racism here?

If it is true that these conditions, as reportedly quoted from the university's assistant registrar, are 'not very different from those stipulated in the Universities and University Colleges Act', then why the need to impose these additional conditions in the first place? Aren't the provisions concerned in the UUCA sufficient? Is the university trying to flex its muscle on these helpless students?

University students in Malaysia as a whole are already in an unenviable position, given the various undemocratic laws governing them. Their status is even worse off than normal citizens because they are denied certain human rights. This extra ruling from USM further 'dehumanises' the students.

My sympathies are with them and other students who in the past few years have had ugly encounters with the authorities on several campuses. I am also concerned because institutions such as Suhakam is of not much help to them either. Neither are the lecturers or their associations on these campuses.