Anti-establishment student groups have revealed more details of an alleged meeting of Umno leaders, ministers' aides, government agencies and police officers in January 2012 to ensure victory for the pro-establishment student faction in this year's campus polls.

The purported meeting was part of an operation named ‘Coordinating the Choice of Student Representative Councils in Public Institutions of Higher Education' which was first exposed by Pro-Mahasiswa Nasional (PMN) on May 23.

It is also called ‘Opps 20/20', in apparent reference to the objective of ensuring a clean sweep of 20 public university elections by the government-friendly Aspirasi student faction.

PMN claimed that the BN intends to "control" these institutions of higher learning for their political survival ahead of the next general election which must be called by June 2013.

Failing to get a satisfactory explanation from the government after the exposure, PMN with another student group Solidariti Mahasiswa Malaysia (SMM), yesterday revealed a purported copy of minutes of an Opps 20/20 meeting held on Jan 25, 2012, at Akademi Kenegaraan, a training centre run by the National Civics Bureau (BTN) in Kuala Lumpur.

According to the 'minutes', 21 individuals, including top Umno Youth and Puteri,leaders, ministers' aides, senior officers of the Higher Education Ministry, BTN and senior police officers from Bukit Aman were listed as being involved in this operation.

NONE Some of them are Umno Youth vice-chief Razali Ibrahim ( left ) who is also Umno Youth higher education bureau chief, Umno Youth exco member Tun Faisal Ismail Aziz, Puteri Umno exco member Serlwani Sabtu, political secretary to the higher education minister Mohammad Khairi A Malik, Bukit Aman special branch chief Mohd Sofian Makinuddin and BTN fellow Irmohizam Ibrahim, who chaired the meeting.

"Opps 20/20 is a test of work, psychological warfare and support from everyone involved, and will be a mirror of the 13th general election," Razali is recorded as saying while addressing the meeting.

According to the "minutes", decisions made during the meeting were also submitted to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Among the alleged methods to manipulate campus elections include:

  • The creation of a campus election operations room to be run by a BTN official;
  • A retreat to be organised by the Higher Education Ministry for residential college chiefs, fellows, residential college academic advisers, deputy vice-chancellors in charge of academic affairs, deans and vice-deans;
  • Encouraging all government agencies involved to adopt a university for close contact;
  • Reporting all engagement with university students to the universities' deputy vice-chancellors in charge of student affairs, deputy registrars of student affairs, directors of student affairs or the campus election operation room in order to strengthen links;
  • Holding election machinery training in various divisions across the country from Jan 20 to Feb 17, 2012, to include organisations such as the Umno higher education bureau, special affairs department (Jasa), Aspirasi alumni, BTN and others in the training sessions; and
  • Postponing the date of campus elections to April 2012 because most universities spend their budget in February, and also to allow more time for campaign preparations.
NONE Last month PNM also accused the Prime Minister's Department of being part of this operation to manipulate campus polls results.

However, Deputy Higher Education Minister Saifuddin Abdullah denied the existence any such operation, adding that Najib was not involved.

In March, a ‘ caretaker council ' was formed after the term of the student representatives council in Universiti Malaya (UM) expired, instead of calling for fresh elections, which had been delayed to September.

UM is not the only university with its campus election postponed, and anti-establishment student groups fear that the ‘caretakers' may be using the extra time to influence the students with pro-establishment tendencies.

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