My niece is studying in one of our public universities. Listening to her words recently about her experiences regarding the recent campus elections, I could only conclude that the apartheid did not die in South Africa. It simply moved into our campuses and resides in the minds of our university administration personnel, especially those of the Student Affairs Departments, which have been turned into Umno Youth campus elections operations departments.

I'm surprised that our students have been trained to win only through foul play. Student activists who don't belong to the 'Aspirasi group' are deemed the enemies of the university, by non other than the Students Affairs Departments.

They are denied equal access to participate in the elections. Rules are specifically designed to disqualify certain candidates. Some university officials simply refuse to lay their signatures on the candidacy form of certain candidates on instruction by the university's management. Without their signatures, the candidates would be disqualified from contesting.

Those few lucky students labelled as 'pro-opposition' but who manage to get through the candidacy process would receive numerous threats form the Student Affairs Department officials. Even their parents would also get a nasty phone calls from these officials in order that they pressure their sons and daughters to withdraw their candidacy.

The list of malpractises in our campus elections is no doubt very long. The worst for Malaysians is yet to come. The products of this system would be the ones who would shape the future of our country.