I found the letter

from Kamarudin Mohd Nor, director of the Malaysian Students Department of UK and Eire, very interesting. There seems to be a very clear policy that has been developed after the recent spat between himself and students in the UK. He is now saying that the MSD deals with only students and societies who are registered with the department.

I wonder if this is the policy of all the MSDs around the world or is it just the policy of London's MSD.

I see this policy in two ways.

One possibility is that the MSD is struggling to find ways to not have to deal with the very strong influence of national-level groups like Hizbi, Ukec, Keadilan, Majlis Syura Muslimun and the like. And the only way is to say that they cannot deal with these groups as a matter of policy and therefore the MSD cannot be blamed for excluding these popular fronts from any negotiations.

He also stated that since some societies are non-student societies (which I doubt because why else are they here?), then they are under the jurisdiction of the High Commission.

So is the status of Kelab Umno the same as that of Hizbi? Can the director also confirm that if, for any reasons, he deemed it wrong for students to attend events organised by groups like Hizbi because it is not registered, then it is also wrong and illegal for people to attend Kelab Umno programmes? After all, based on his latest statement, both are not registered with the MSD and both regularly invite politicians to speak on their platform. If Kamarudin is still biased in the way he treats this issue, then it would be true that he is only looking for excuses not to deal with other organisations other than Kelab Umno.

The other possibility is that Kamarudin is still trying to get some students to rally around him, especially if he is able to set up another national-level organisation. Obviously this new society will be registered with the MSD and all activities will be officially recognised.

Bearing in mind the way Malaysian students perceive the MSD at the moment, I can see the society only as an instrument of Kamarudin and his Umno masters. It would not be surprising if the elected leaders if this society are either from Kelab Umno, or those students who would not be strong enough to stand up and voice the concerns of Malaysian students in the UK as a whole. All in all, this new society will be nothing more than Kamarudin's stooge.

In both scenarios, it would be the students who lose out. Kamarudin is going all out to make his mark among students. He has been visiting several places in the UK recently. Unfortunately, his visits were not very well received by students. In his visit to Dundee on Nov 21, only two male post-graduate students and about five female students turned up to 'entertain' him. Out of these, only two stayed to have a short chat with him. The rest of the student population decided to ignore his visit altogether. Many feel that meeting him would bring no foreseeable benefits.

I think it is time for Kamarudin to reflect on his impact on student activism in the UK as a whole. So far, his influence has been very negative, if any. Students who are under scholarships to study abroad are the future leaders of our country. The majority of these students are honing their intellectual capabilities and they prefer to do it without interference from people like Kamarudin, who boasts of his membership to Umno and who enjoys threatening students whenever they disagree with him, unlike the previous London MSD directors. Kamarudin's immediate predecessor, for one, was accepted by all parties because he was not the threatening type.

If Kamarudin wishes to continue with the same threatening and intimidating approach to students, the effects would be very negative indeed. I would suggest that rather than jeopardising the intellectual development of our country's future leaders, we might as well urge Kamarudin to step down. Let him be replaced by someone else who knows the real function of the MSD and who does not intimidate students with their presence.