A students' organisation today called on Education Minister Musa Mohamed to investigate recent raids at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM).

In a statement, the Malaysian Youth and Students Democratic Movement (Dema) criticised the raids on students' rooms and the student representative council's office as an attempt to silence dissent in campus.

National affairs secretary Chang Lih Kang said the minister should initiate disciplinary action against those university officials who have "misused their powers to create white terror on campus".

"The heavy-handed action towards women students at ungodly hours shows the arrogance of the university authorities," he said.

"We deem the extreme action taken by the university authorities as an attempt to silence the voices of dissent in campus."

Written authorisation

Chang said the raids proved that the university authorities had exceeded the scope of their powers by ransacking the rooms of students after office hours and without producing any written authorisation.

In the first raid two weeks ago, four women undergraduates had their rooms searched and they were later interrogated in the wee hours of the morning.

The raiding team confiscated several documents including PAS leaflets and accused the four of planning "underground activities".

Following this, the student council's office was raided last Saturday and about 2,000 copies of its bulletin were seized. The bulletin contained a memorandum protesting new university policies that had usurped the council's powers.

On the same night, a student representative's room was raided and she was said to have been threatened when she requested for a written authorisation.

The raids are believed to be part of an operation to crackdown on students suspected of being sympathetic towards the opposition in the run-up to the annual campus election .

'Abolish UUCA'

Chang said these violations of privacy and the accusation that the students were planning 'underground activities' - without concrete evidence - are serious insults.

"Ransacking and confiscating personal belongings without following legal procedures are considered crimes," he said.

Chang also called for abolition of the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA) which gives the university authorities absolute powers, in particular to the vice-chancellor.

Earlier, DAP Socialist Youth (Dapsy) had also urged the education minister to conduct a probe on the raids and clarify the matter within a week.

Failing this, Dapsy said it would consider lodging a complaint with the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam).