The Higher Learning Ministry has questioned the capacity of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) to monitor the hotly-contested annual campus elections being held at all public universities today.

"Is Suhakam professional enough to monitor the polls? Are they well-equipped? Who are they going to send?" asked ministry parliamentary secretary Dr Adham Baba when contacted yesterday evening.

All local varsities fall under the purview of the ministry.

Suhakam had said it wanted to monitor the polls after receiving a number of memoranda from students' groups which had complained of irregularities as well as harassment by campus authorities.

The 'pro-establishment' forces, allegedly being helped by the campus authorities, are seeking to triumph over the 'anti-establishment' groups in key universities this time around.

Adham questioned the commission's intention to monitor the current campus polls when it has never done so in the past.

"Will they persist in this kind of monitoring? (Or is it just) hangat-hangat tahi ayam (loss of initial enthusiasm)?" said Adham, who is also the Umno Youth education bureau chief.

He added that the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 does not provide for any external body to monitor the campus elections.

"UUCA was enacted before the Suhakam was formed (in 1999). In the Act, we don't have any provision to empower such monitoring and my opinion is that there is no need for this because the universities have the machinery required to conduct the elections," he added.

He advised disgruntled students to forward their complaints to the university authorities rather than to Suhakam.

Application 'too late'

Adham also claimed that Suhakam's request to monitor the polls had been submitted only "one or two days ago".

(Suhakam had asked for permission to monitor polling ever since students lodged their complaints to the rights body last month. However, it said the ministry and the campus authorities had both given it the runaround.

According to Suhakam, the Higher Learning Ministry had argued that the final decision rests with the universities' vice-chancellors. But the university authorities said Suhakam should seek the ministry's approval.

Adham reiterated that his ministry would leave the decision to the campus authorities, but it is learnt that Suhakam was still awaiting an official answer from both parties until yesterday evening.

Asked whether he would observe polling today, Adham replied: "I would not do the same thing as Suhakam because I have trust in the universities" and that "a few (election) irregularities complaints need not be highlighted in the media".

Commenting on the 'pro-establishment' candidates who had wrested control of the Universiti Malaya (UM) students representative council for the first time in eight years, Adham - who was a UM student leader in the mid-80s - said he was pleased with the development.

Of the 39 seats in the council, the 'pro-establishment' group won 22 uncontested when nomination closed last Saturday. This is due to a boycott by the 'anti-establishment' candidates on the grounds that they had been subjected to unfair and biased election rules.

Many of their candidates were not endorsed by the campus authorities to contest in the polls. UM has traditionally been a bastion of opposition political activism.

"I see this development because students want real changes. When the anti-establishment candidates controlled the student council, UM's ranking among Asian universities dropped from 11th in 1997 to 27th in 2000. They succeeded in making changes this time," he said.

Fear culture

In an immediate response to Adham's comments, Suhakam commissioner Prof Hamdan Adnan argued that monitoring of campus elections is among the commission's tasks.

"Why is there to fear by letting us in to monitor the polling process when the ministry keeps saying there is nothing to hide? By refusing our request, the perception is otherwise and it shows that there are a lot of things that they want to hide," said Hamdan, who sounded furious.

"This fear culture among local universities is not good at all when we claim we want to produce world-class graduates.

"The question of Suhakam's professionalism shouldn't arise at all because the most important thing is the students' right to fair elections. Unfair polling is a human rights violation and Suhakam is a statutory body set up to safeguard the country's human rights."

The elections have already been marred by allegations that campus authorities have exerted its influence on the nomination process and that 'anti-establishment' students had been threatened and coerced into pulling out of the contest.

In order to be nominated, contestants must get prior approval - in the form of an official signature - from the campus authorities.

It is also alleged that most of the candidates favoured by university authorities had received approval to contest and there is also suspicion over the fairness and transparency of online polling, which is being implemented nationwide this year.

"I view these trends as worrying because I have been told that even parents had received threatening calls demanding that their children should withdraw from contesting," said Hamdan.

He urged the universities to heed the advice of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who has pledged to uphold good governance and transparency.

"If these pledges cannot be translated into the administration of one of our most important institutions - the university - then there must be something wrong. The prime minister will be the laughing stock (of everyone) for not being able to implement his beautiful pledges," he added.