One of the Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) students arrested by campus auxiliary police during a near brawl at a students’ forum last night said they were the victims of outside agent provocateurs.

"There were provocateurs pretending to be students among us from UiTM and other universities at the forum, who raised racial issues and said our forum was attempting to divide the Malays. They even tried to provoke some of us into fist fights,” said the student activist Khaled Mohd Ismail.

"We are disappointed that campus security did not take any action against the provocateurs. Instead, we were arrested."

Khaled was one of those detained and held in detention overnight by campus security officers after the incident. Four other students were arrested along with him.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today, he said that they would continue their fight to see the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA) repealed and they would not give up, despite these provocations.

The event organised by the UiTM student body brought together students from several universities for a forum on its campus last night, when the event was disrupted.

According to a Sinar Harian report today, the incident broke out at the UiTM Shah Alam speaker’s corner due to provocation from what is believed to be a pro-establishment students’ group.

The report said trouble started when one of the Solidariti Mahasiswa Malaysia (SMM) activists delivering a speech was interrupted by the said provocateurs.

Six SMM members were detained as a result.

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