Two student representatives of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) claimed they have been assaulted and labelled as 'communists' by university officials.

Lua Khang Wei and Lim Ban Teng, both third-year students, lodged a complaint to the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon.

The duo said the incident took place on Aug 6 at the university after Lim received a call from a student affairs department official, who only identified himself as 'Azrizan'.

"Azrizan said the deputy vice-chancellor who oversees student affairs (associate prof Dr Azali Mohamed) wanted to see me. I asked him why, but he did not give any reason," said Lim.

"He asked me to just go and see the deputy VC (vice-chancellor). I asked Lua to accompany me as a witness," recalled Lim, who is a student representative from the biotechnology faculty.

Pushed and shouted at

Upon their arrival, they were told to wait outside the deputy VC's room. After 15 minutes, Lim said the deputy VC had asked for him but disallowed Lua from going into his office.

The duo then decided to leave since they had wanted to meet the deputy VC together.

"Suddenly an official, known as 'Aris,' approached us and pushed me onto the sofa in the waiting room of the deputy VC office. He kept pushing and I was frightened. I told him not to be rough and we left the room immediately," Lim said.

Soon after, as they were heading towards the neighbouring science and environment faculty, the duo heard people shouting at them.

"We were scared because suddenly there were about seven officials from the student affairs department who surrounded us in front of a bus stop at the science and environment faculty," they said.

According to the duo, they were certain that the officials were from the student affairs department as they were wearing the official cards.

"One of them, identified as Mazlan, suddenly grabbed my student card. I also tried to take his (Mazlan) card and told him not to be rough," Lim said.

"At one juncture, he called us communists and showed an indecent hand sign at us," Lua recollected.

Following the incident, the pair lodged reports to the university's security department twice - on Aug 7 and Aug 9 - but the university has yet to take any action.

The VC and student affairs department head Hashim Shaari could not be reached for comment this afternoon.

Campus elections

To a question, Lim said he was uncertain why the VC had requested to see him. He also pointed out there was no formal letter issued by the VC for the meeting.

"I have asked repeatedly, but no reason was given. I don't want to be drawn into speculation here and would not like to prejudge who is right or wrong, I hope the university can initiate a probe," he replied.

Former UPM graduate Chang Lih Kang, who was also present, opined that the incident could be linked to the upcoming campus elections as the two student representatives were critical of issues involving student welfare.

Lua and Lim's families had received threatening calls from unknown persons last year during the campus election campaigning period.

In the campus polls last year, the UPM student council fell in the hands of a student faction which called itself 'aspirasi kerajaan' (government's aspiration).

"I think the two incidents were inter-related. This is a tactic used by the university to spread fear among students before the campus elections expected to be held in early September," said Chang, who represents the Malaysia Youth and Students Democratic Movement.

He added that the latest incident could be a form of "warning" prior to the polls because Lua and Lim had refused to remain silent last year about the threats received by their families.

Meanwhile, Lua urged Suhakam to give due attention to the case and expressed hope that the commission would initiate an inquiry on the matter.

According to him, Suhakam senior investigation officer Taib Hampden, who recorded the complaint, had promised to obtain a response from the university within a week.