A student from Universiti Malaysia Perlis has been slapped with a 66-day academic suspension and RM100 fine for supposedly organising a programme to raise awareness of voting, allegedly linked with pro-opposition groups.

NONE Mohd Zaini Izuwan (left) , 25, said he was accused for organising the program at a restaurant in Kangar on Jan 13 which involved 14 student groups from Perlis, Kedah and Penang.

The program, named ‘Watch 13', is an initiative by the student coalition to raise public awareness of the importance of voting in the coming general election.

The university accused Mohd Izuwan’s actions of adversely impacting the school, and had issued a stern warning to the final year student.

When contacted yesterday, Mohd Izuwan questioned the punishment, denying he was the organiser but that he merely attended the program as an observer.

"I went as an observer, not the organiser. What’s wrong with attending this program as an observer?" he said.

NONE He also slammed the school’s domestic inquiry for barring him from bringing his witnesses and from questioning the prosecutor’s witnesses.

According to media reports earlier, the programme, which was in fact a press conference on Watch 13, had seen heated debate between the students and anonymous parties, who had gone there to express dissatisfaction over the establishment of the coalition.

The anonymous group claimed that Watch 13 had adopted the opposition’s agenda.

During the event, the students had reportedly also released balloons on which were written words such as ‘corruption’, ‘Internal Security Act’, ‘phantom voters’ and ‘hardcore poor’.