Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming today criticised Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) for hauling up 13 of its students who held a protest after going without water for two weeks at their residential colleges.

Ong pointed out that among the reasons the students were being punished was for handing him a memorandum to complaint about the water issue during the protest in March.

"This kind of attitude reflects the larger problem at hand – which is the unwillingness of UKM to engage in an open and transparent dialogue with all the stakeholders including student leaders over an important issue which seriously impacted the well-being of students in the affected residential colleges.

"Rather than punishing them, the UKM authorities should be working together with the students and other stakeholders such as Syabas, the local state assemblyperson and MP, the local authority and the state government in order to solve the problem at hand," said Ong ( photo ) in a statement today.

The DAP lawmaker said that he too had tried to engage with UKM by writing to the university on April 16 to seek a discussion on how to resolve the water issue.

Students to face disciplinary committee

However, Ong pointed out that UKM was more interested in punishing its students for raising the issue.

"As long as this sort of attitude prevails in our public universities, whatever talk of trying to attain the status of a world class university will be empty rhetoric, devoid of substance.

"How can a public university speak about attaining academic excellence when it continues to shackle its own students?" lamented Ong.

The students will face UKM's disciplinary committee on June 29.