It is important and critical that undergraduates' voices be heard when it comes to education reform and nation development, said MIC Youth deputy chief V Mugilan today.

He said students’ opinions needed to be heard, which may help change perceptions and provide some creative ideas to improve their future in the country.

He noted that the nation and education system could meet the needs of most students by encouraging freedom and independence, and enable them to voice out opinions freely.

"How can we expect them to be engaged citizens in the future, if we do not allow them to participate in the discussion about policies that most affect them today," he told Bernama when contacted.

Mugilan was commenting on a 24-minute video clip depicting a heated exchange between Sharifah Zohra Jabeen Syed Shah Miskin and University Utara Malaysia law student KS Bawani during a forum at the university recently, which has become a hot topic of discussion on Facebook and Internet forums.

"Even Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has recognised that undergraduates in local universities have become more vocal and critical of the government, and has loosened some laws allowing students to participate in politics.

"We (MIC) are disappointed that Sharifah Zohra, being a panellist (of the forum), did not handle the situation diplomatically and wisely," he said.

A check on Facebook revealed the forum, titled ‘ Seiringkan Mahasiswa dan Politik ', took place on Dec 8 and the video on the question-and-answer session was only uploaded on YouTube last Wednesday.

As of this morning, there were more than 170,000 views of the six-day-old video, which has drawn an overwhelming number of “dislikes”.

A page was created in Facebook , ‘We want Sharifah Zohra Jabeen to make a public apology to Miss Bavani’, with 26,814 likes to the page.

- Bernama