Despite being promised more freedom under the new amendments made to Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA), Universiti Putra Malaysia has apparently banned its students from taking part in Saturday's Bersih 3.0 rally.

According to the UPM Pro-Mahasiswa group, the student affairs division issued the notice through the university hostel website yesterday, labelling the 428 sit-in protest as an illegal assembly.

The notice cited the UUCA and university regulations that prohibit students from taking part in public rallies to back its action, the movement said in a statement issued today.

NONE Malaysiakini 's attempts to verify the notice with the student' affairs division deputy vice-chancellor Mohd Fauzi Ramlan proved futile at the time of writing and his special assistant, Nor Azlan Mohamed, refused to comment on the issue.

Pro-Mahasiswa condemned the campus authorities for infringing on the rights of students to public assembly as enshrined in the constitution and violating the spirit of the new UUCA amendments.

"The prime minister had said recently that the UUCA amendments are meant to allow college students to take part in politics, but our university has just invoked UUCA to suppress the students.

When actions torpedo words

"Why is there such a contradiction?" asked a member of the group, Lee Soo Wei.

NONE Lee urged all students to step forward to defend their rights by defying the order and to gather at Dataran Merdeka on Saturday to support the call for democracy.

"The objective of the 428 sit-in protest is to highlight existing frauds in the electoral system with the hope that they will be rectified, so that the Malaysia's democracy can be strengthened.

"Hence, students' participation in the Bersih rally should be encouraged, not suppressed," she said.

The group also reiterated its demand that the government repeals the UUCA, a law they deem as depriving the student's fundamental right to academic freedom.

"It is difficult for a university to produce outstanding students without academic freedom and campus autonomy.

"Under prolonged suppression, the students will ultimately become ignorant," Lee said.

She stressed that the students should not be restricted to just academic studies and within the campus activities; instead they should be also be allowed to be concerned about the country's social issues.

azlan