Undergraduates cannot participate in the planned Bersih 2.0 rally this July 9 if the authorities do not issue a permit for the event, said Higher Education Minister Khaled Nordin.

He warned that if students were to take part in a rally that was not sanctioned by the police, they would be committing a crime by participating in an illegal gathering.

Khaled however remained coy when asked if his ministry would issue a directive on whether students can if the rally organisers be granted a permit.

"If it is organised by a political party then it is very clear under the UUCA (Universities and University-Colleges Act) that they cannot join, but if it is by an NGO, then it is up to the authorities," he said when door-stopped after attending the first meeting of the National Students Consultative Council for 2011 today.

Organisers of the Bersih 2.0 rally claim it is a civil society initiative pushing for free and fair elections. It is understood that the event is planned for July 9 amidst speculation that the 13th General Elections could be soon.

There are however links between that group and Pakatan Rakyat, since news about the rally first broke from PAS leader Mohamad Sabu two weeks earlier.

UUCA to stay as it is

On the council meeting early, Khaled said although the UUCA was not part of the agenda, it was raised during the meeting and recorded as input from student leaders.

He said that the UUCA was a regular issue raised during council meetings but stressed that the government's position remained the same.

"... this issue is not new and the environment is not any different, so the old answer that we gave then can still be used now," he said without going into detail.

The UUCA has often been criticised as a tool which stifles critical thinking among students and limits their freedom of association off-campus.

It was amended in 2008 to allow students to join off-campus organisations, but the ban on joining with political parties was maintained.

Some student groups and opposition politicians are still unsatisfied with the amendments with at least one student group challenging the constitutionality of the UUCA in court.

No need to take Hadi seriously

Meanwhile, Khaled brushed aside PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang's recent stand that there will never be any cooperation between the Islamist party and Umno.

Describing it as mere rhetoric, Khaled, who is an Umno supreme council member, implied that Hadi's pronouncement is not something to be taken seriously.

"Last time they said there was no way PAS would work with DAP. Now they say there is no way PAS will split ways with DAP... this (Hadi) is a politician, why so serious?," he quipped.

Earlier today, Hadi declared that any move to promote cooperation between Umno and PAS would be an exercise in futility, accusing Umno of plundering wealth through dubious means.

In his strongly-worded keynote address when opening his party's Muktamar or general assembly, the president - who retained his post uncontested in this year's party elections - called an Umno-PAS union as "narrow communalism" that does not respect Islam's recognition of a plural society.