University of Malaya (UM) staff may have to brush up on their counting skills, since the 'UM8' are bent on settling their fines in coins.

 

The university's student affairs division (HEP) does not have the right to hold the students “paper money”, said student activist Adam Fistival Wilfrid.

 

“(They) do not have the right to hold on to our money, so we will pay the RM1,500 fine with 20 sen coins. Let them count it out,” he said.

 

Wilfrid spoke to Malaysiakini during a barbecue session at “Occupy UM”, held outside the university's Kuala Lumpur gate, on their third day of protest.

 

Occupy UM had set up camp on Wednesday to pressure the country's oldest tertiary institution to lift punishment on seven out of the UM8 activists.

 

The students were found guilty for organising a campus rally on Oct 27 which featured opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim as a key speaker, without the university’s permission.

 

Wilfrid, who is the former UM student union (PMUM) international and corporate affairs exco, said if they were to blindly follow the HEP's decision, it will be akin to them agreeing to the Universities and University Colleges Act (Auku), which severely limits their activism.

 

The Act, the students said, have too many law and rules that would restrict freedom of expression, freedom of speech and their constitutional freedom.

 

Wilfrid is one of the seven who faced disciplinary action. He was fined RM150 and issued a warning, alongside former PMUM colleagues – vice-president Haw Yu Hong, welfare exco Khairul Anwar, and general-secretary Syamimi Munira Mohamed.

 

Two faced heavier sentences. Former union president Fahmi Zainol was suspended for two consecutive semesters and fined RM600, while UM Pro-Mahasiswa president Safwan Shamsuddin had to sit out one semester and pay a fine of RM300.

 

Under watchful eyes

 

Throughout the interview, Occupy UM was under the wary eye of Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) officers sitting in their vehicles – a truck and three vans – parked at a distance.

 

The officers had earlier refused to accept a bucket of fried chicken offered to them by lawyers from Edmund Bon Advocates, who sponsored the barbecue.

 

The day might have gotten off to a slow start, with around 30 students milling about the campsite, but the crowed swelled to at least 250 by 9.30pm as they await in anticipation for rabble rousers Hishamuddin Rais and Adam Adli to appear.

 

Hishamuddin, addressing the crowd, reminisced about his student days in 1974 where during a similar student uprising, they had camped out for 14 days.

 

“You see that roundabout? That was our battleground. That was where we (students from UM and University Kebangsaan Malaysia) fought with the Federal Reserve Units (FRU).

 

“Dear students, you are making history again after 40 years,” he said amid loud cheers from the crowd.

 

Hishamuddin then told the students they should rise up against the cruel Umno regime and bring them down. He also chided them for only managing to spark the fire of protest in less than 500 people.

 

“You have less than 500 students here. This means you have failed because in this campus, there are 10,000 students. You have to bring in more than a thousand, then you would not have failed. For that, you must make propaganda!

 

“In the end, the world is yours. Fight for it,” he said to the crowd who listened in rapt attention throughout his rousing speech.

 

Visiting the encampment

 

As the night wore on, several notable figures unexpectedly dropped by to show their support for the students.

 

Among them are DAP advisor and Gelang Patah MP Lim Kit Siang, who urged the students to hold on to their idealism as it a “driving force” which they should not cast aside.

 

Seputeh MP Teresa Kok, speaking to Malaysiakini , said she applauds the students efforts and called them “courageous”.

 

She added that the “voices of dissent from the students should be supported by more people”.

 

Kok also called the university administration as “stupid” for punishing the seven student activists.

 

PKR vice-president Tian Chua, who also came, managed to squeeze in one last speech at around 11pm last night, urging them to not be afraid of the Sedition Act.

 

“If you can prove your innocence, you don't have to be afraid. I salute the students who have started this (Occupy UM). Who knows, maybe in five or three years, or maybe even three months, this will be the changing point in history,” he said.

 

Earlier yesterday, former higher education deputy minister Saifuddin Abdullah and social activist Marina Mahathir stopped by the campsite after attending a forum on freedom of expression at the campus.

 

Occupy UM had vowed to continue their protest and campout until the disciplinary action on the seven are retracted, but was told by DBKL to dismantle their tents on Thursday.