Students who had demonstrated yesterday calling for the resignation of Deputy Higher Education Minister Saifuddin Abdullah have refused to accept the latter's invitation to meet him.

NONE In a statement today, Saifuddin ( right ) said that he had invited them to a meeting as he could not personally accept the memorandum handed over at the Higher Education Ministry.

"I was not there as I was attending programmes in Batu Pahat and Seremban, which was scheduled earlier. (My officer) had invited (the students) to meet in Parliament at 12.15pm but this offer was rejected," he said.

The deputy minister added that he still has "love" for the students, who claimed to be from the Pro-Aspirasi coalition of campus politics, even though they demonstrated against him.

"In my opinion, (the demonstrators) have the right to demonstrate and voice their views. I will defend this right... I understand that some of them are students. I want to tell them that my love for them has not changed," Saifuddin said.

Brave enough to debate?

He added that he also personally received the memorandum from the president of the Pro-Aspirasi alumni association Mohd Shahar Abdullah at a debate in UPM last night.

"The meeting was brief but warm, where we shook hands and smiled at each other," he said.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued yesterday, the other side of the campus political divide, Pro-Mahasiswa, cynically congratulated their counterpart for "finally accepting that demonstrations are a legitimate avenue in a democratic system".

"Before, Pro-Aspirasi had labelled demonstrations as uncivilised, but today we see that these pro-Umno students have matured," said Pro-Mahasiswa president Mohd Taufiq Abdul.

NONE He added that such "courage to demonstrate" should also be extended to a more "academic" avenue like a debate between the two sides, which he claims Pro-Aspirasi has avoided.

"The national Pro-Mahasiswa movement feels that this is the right time for Pro-Aspirasi to work up the courage to take on our challenge for a debate... on academic freedom," he said.

VC backs pro-gov't demo

The Pro-Aspirasi demonstration received support from UiTM vice-chancellor Sahol Hamid Abu Bakar who on his Facebook page said it was for the sake of Malay unity.

NONE "I am of the view that as civil servants, we must support our boss who is the prime minister. A reminder to all students: Malays shouldn't fight with Malays. Don't sell our race and dignity," he said in a post this morning.

Responding to a query from another Facebook user, he said the demonstration was "apolitical" and that students "have a right to love the prime minister".

"They did not chant the name of any party unlike (student NGO) SMM who chanted Anything But Umno. SMM are obviously involved in partisan politics," he said.

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