One of the two foreign students allegedly sexually assaulted while on exchange at Universiti Malaya (UM) has criticised how the university handled the cases after reports were made, saying the top local university is "not really ready to accept all international students" as it failed to protect them. 

A Japanese student, who wanted to be known only as Yo M, recently released a statement on Facebook detailing his sexual assault by another foreign student. 

Yo claimed he was assaulted on April 30 at 8 pm in his Tun Ahmad Residential College dormitory room by another foreign student, who had forcefully kissed him and forced Yo to touch his penis. His attacker ran away after he threatened to call the police. 

When Yo tried to report the incident to the university’s International Student Centre (ISC) three days later, the officers-in-charge allegedly laughed at him. 

“ISC asked me to accompany them to withdraw my police report, (ISC said this was) so that the university could have a smoother investigation,” he said in the statement. 

In a video call with Malaysiakini, Yo confirmed he had taken ISC Project Officer Gamal Ali Salleh Al-Mwald’s advice and retracted his police report at Pantai police station on May 16, two weeks after he had made it. 

“I agreed to do it because I thought the police could not do anything, as I could not provide evidence,” he said. 

Pantai police station declined to confirm this on privacy grounds. 

When contacted, Gamal denied Yo’s allegations. 

“I did not ask him to withdraw the police report,” he said. 

Gamal declined to comment further, refusing even to provide the number of foreign exchange students registered under his department, saying the case was being “handled by top management”.  

'College reputation is more important than student safety.'  

Less than two weeks after he was assaulted, Yo alleged another foreign student was attacked by the same suspect. 

“On May 12, another guy from Taiwan was attacked by the same (perpetrator) in a really similar situation. I heard about this incident from the victim,” he said in the statement. 

Both victims were told to call their respective embassies when they brought the matter up with ISC. 

The Taiwanese student was also told by ISC to not report the incident to police, he added. 

“Mrs Salmi (Masita Shaari), the director of ISC, mentioned that the college’s ‘face’ or reputation was more important than students’ safety,” Yo said in the statement. 

Malaysiakini understands that a hearing was held by the UM disciplinary board for Yo and the suspect was suspended for one week for his actions. 

A hearing for the Taiwanese student, scheduled for yesterday, had to be postponed to a yet-to-be-confirmed date in July as both the victim and suspect parties were unavailable. 

Yo, who started his semester at UM last September, has left Malaysia and will return to Japan to resume his legal studies. 

The Taiwanese student has also left for Taiwan. 

As a result of his experiences, Yo has urged foreign universities to halt sending students to UM “since they cannot protect their students”. 

“They (UM) are not really ready to accept all international students...when students (encounter) dangerous situations they can’t take rapid action.

“They haven’t even come up with any ideas to share emergency alerts to international students. This means students won’t know about dangers until they get hurt,” he said. 

UM’s international and corporate relations office has released a statement on both sexual assault cases, assuring students that the university is “taking matters of this nature seriously and all complaints will be processed thoroughly”. 

“We would like to confirm that a complaint has been received and given due process.

“As the investigation process has not completed, it would be inappropriate for us to comment or pre-empt on the case.

“The university also would like to ask for the public’s patience on this as each case requires proper investigation and attention,” the statement said.