Police today ordered a group of Tunku Abdul Rahman (TAR) College students to stop a signature campaign in support of the controversial SJK (C) Damansara school.

Spokesperson for student group TAR College Progressive Movement, Ng Chong Soon, told malaysiakini that three police officers questioned group members for almost 20 minutes and told those who had gathered to sign the memorandum to disperse from the area.

Ng said that the students launched the campaign this morning at a restaurant in Taman Bunga Raya, Setapak, near TAR college.

"An hour later, at about 12.10pm, three policemen came and questioned us. They asked us for our identity cards and ordered the rest of the students to leave," he said.

He said that the police also asked them whether they have a permit for the gathering.

"After recording our names, they tried to confiscate our identity cards without any valid reason," Ng said, adding however that they managed to recover their identity cards.

He added that the police continuously threatened them for organising an "illegal assembly".

"We regret the police's action as it is a restriction of an individual's right to organise activities that are not against the law," Ng said.

"We hoped to raise awareness that the right to mother-tongue education should be respected and we wanted to gather support from other college students," Ng said.

The campaign, which began at 11am this morning, managed to garner 200 signatures before it ended abruptly after the police arrived.

Staying put

Students of the Damansara school were supposed to have moved to Puay Chai II in January while awaiting the completion of the new school building in Tropicana.

However, an initial 67 students, later joined by seven others, and their parents, rebelled against the decision as they were dissatisfied with the authorities' rationale for the relocation as well as the lack of information on the future of the 70-year-old school once it is abandoned.

They are presently continuing their schooling at a neighbourhood temple.

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