"Passive and non-marketable" local graduates are the negative impacts from the implementation of Universities and University Colleges Act ( UUCA ), a student organisation said today.

The National Undergraduates Action Front ( Barisan Bertindak Mahasiswa Negera or BBMN ) said several controversial clauses in the Act have restricted the analytical thinking of students.

BBMN said this in a study submitted to the Malaysia Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) this morning in Kuala Lumpur. About 30 students were present.

Vice-chancellor's power

The report compiled the negative impacts of UUCA on undergraduates and academicians and how the Act violates human rights and its study cases.

It also proposed several amendments to 15 clauses of the Act which the students said have violated their rights to association and free expression.

"The Act has to be reviewed as the (university) vice-chancellor (VC) hold a wide range of discretion and power. We want a definition to make clear what is the limit and extent of the VC's power," said BBMN secretary-general Wan Nazrul Helmy Wan Mohd Zin.

Students are prohibited to hold any gathering of more than five people, participate in activities outside campus, engage in part-time work, join associations or political parties, release media statements without the written permission from the VC under UUCA.

Wan Nazrul who is also students council president of the International Islamic University of Malaysia stressed that the UUCA has to be amended in view of the competition in a globalisation era.

He said the Academic Staff Association had in January 1978 outlined a University Charter calling for campus autonomy but that was set aside by the government.

"Although the struggle against UUCA started in the 70s, it is still relevant today because there has not been any positive response from the authority so far," he told Suhakam.

BBMN deputy president Shahrul Zaman Lukman said the recent ' ISA 7 ' trial is a very clear example of how UUCA violated the civil rights of students.

Amendment call 'appropriate'

Receiving the report, Suhakam commissioner Prof Dr Mohd Hamdan Adnan said the students' appeal was appropriate as the students would then have a platform to participate in the democratic process.

He said two divisions of Suhakam - law reform and policy and research - were reviewing the Act which he described as one of the commission's main agenda after the Internal Security Act.

He added that a report on UUCA, similar to that of the ISA, will be published once Suhakam completes its study.

"The Act comprises elements contradicting the principles of human rights and this has to be rectified," Mohd Hamdan told the students.

ISA 7 trial

Meanwhile, on the fourth day of trial for the 'ISA 7' at the Kuala Lumpur Magistrate's Court today, the prosecution called its third witness Hanyan Ramlan, the Dang Wangi district police intelligence chief.

Hanyan arrested one of the seven accused, Nik Noorhafizi Nik Ibrahim, 23, a former student from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. He is currently unemployed.

During the testimony, he told the court he was not in police uniform and did not show his police identification card when he made the arrest.

The witness said he told the students he is a police officer and urged them to break the human chain.

Hanyan said as the students refused to follow his instruction, he broke up the human chain formed by the students and arrested Nik Noorhafizi.

He added he only focused his attention on five to eights students for 15 minutes that day who were holding banners, posters and chanting 'reformasi' and 'abolish ISA', but all of them were not in the evidence (photos) submitted to the court.

The hearing will resume tomorrow. Another six police officers are expected to testify over the next few days.

Ex-ISA detainee Hishamuddin Rais, PAS central committee member Dr Hatta Ramli, Suaram executive director Cynthia Gabriel and coordinator S Arutchelvan also attended the hearing today.

The seven suspended university students were charged under section 27 of the Police Act for allegedly participating in illegal assembly on June 8, 2001 (in order to protest the ISA at the national mosque).