Gag order on USM students, Malaysiakini mentioned in particular

comments     Beh Lih Yi     Published     Updated

Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) students have been warned by the university not to make any statement or comment to the media and web-based media such as malaysiakini .

The students were warned by the university during a "leadership workshop" last Saturday.

It is learnt that students who attended the meeting are the four top exco members — president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer — from each society in the university.

According to a student leader, who requested to remain anonymous, university vice-chancellor Prof Dzulkilfli Abdul Razak and student affairs department deputy vice-chancellor associate professor Jamaludin Mohaladin issued the warning to student leaders during the meeting.

The two said all societies and their members should not make any statement or respond to any media query regarding the societies or university's policy without prior permission from the university.

Photostat copies of guidelines for student organisations were distributed during the meeting. Among the no-no's were giving statements to the web-based media, and malaysiakini was mentioned in particular in the guidelines.

According to the source, the meeting was an annual do for exco members of student societies.

About 200 exco members attended the meeting which was held from 8.30am till 4.30pm.

The meeting was organised by the university to brief exco members in society management which includes official correspondence and accounting.

Guidelines distributed

The guidelines that were distributed, included among others, that students are warned to adhere to regulations, which restrict the freedom of students, in the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA) and the university's code of ethics.

The students are not allowed to be involved in any non-government organsations or political parties, and restricted from organising assemblies or publishing any materials without the permission of the university.

"We are strictly prohibited to speak or comment on any university policies," he said.

He added that the deputy vice-chancellor reminded them that they had applied to study in the university, "not invited by the university" and that if they are "not satisfied with the university's policies, you can choose to quit".

The source also said the university had distributed to each of them a copy of the UUCA as a "souvenir" at the end of the meeting.

Not told of consequences

He added that the university did not tell them what the consequences would be if they infringed the regulations, but they were reminded that infringement should not happen as they each have a copy of the regulations.

When asked by malaysiakini whether the students were warned not to get involved in the coming Pendang and Anak Bukit by-elections, he said "no".

But, he added that the vice-chancellor had warned students about this during his opening speech at a separate programme in the campus on June 25.

In January this year, eight university students were caught for "trespasses and sabotage into the Barisan Nasional (BN) operations centre" during the Indera Kayangan by-election.

Four among them were from USM.

From this year, undergraduates from government-run universities have to sign a pledge of good conduct ( Aku Janji ) which has been described as a further curb on students' freedom of speech, expression and association.

Before this, the local undergraduates had to abide by regulations under the existence of UUCA since 1971.



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