The International Islamic University Malaysia (UIAM) has sent a show cause letter to the UIAM Students' Representative Council president Hanif Mahpa for allegedly sullying the university's name through a statement urging Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to take temporary control of the government.

The statement in question was endorsed by 12 UIAM student groups and was signed by Hanif, along with several other student group presidents.

The student groups had also said in their statement that the DPM should pressure Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak ( photo ) to take leave pending investigations into the allegations that US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) was deposited into Najib's personal bank accounts.

The We Unite For Islam (Wufi) student group had criticised the university, who sent the show cause letter through the university's Legal Unit and Office of Security and Management, for this action.

"The UIAM administration is using the excuse of "sullying the university's name" to punish students," it lamented.

'Robotising scholars' 

According to them, this only shows that the university believes in "robotising scholars" because it do not approve of students being vocal about their opinions on the country's administration.

In fact, Wufi said it does not think the student groups' statement had sullied the university's name.

On the contrary, the statement had garnered positive reactions from academicians and politicians alike, it insisted. 

It suggested that the university's administration, especially deputy rector (student affairs) Mizan Hitam, read the statement "with an open mind free from prejudice".

It also questioned why there have been no further investigations into the mic-snatching incident in May, where campus security members snatched a microphone from Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli ( photo ) mid-speech.

"But when it comes to students, so fast they get a letter," Wufi said.

Why the biased reactions from the university, it wondered.

The university should retract the show cause letter because their actions are the ones sullying the university's name, Wufi said.

"Do you want UIAM to be known as 'Universiti Jadong' (in this case jadong means bad, stupid and arrogant)?" it asked.