Universiti Malaya should prioritise in improving its academic rankings, instead of issuing show-cause letters to student activists, says DAP youth chief Wong Kah Woh.

UM undergraduate Anis Syafiqah Md Yusof was slapped with a show-cause letter for allegedly "smearing" UM's image by organising a rally calling for action against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

"The UM vice-chancellor should focus on raising UM's academic performance, which had embarrassingly slipped out of the Times Higher Education (THE) Top 400 University Rankings since 2010, to the extent that UM opted to stay out in 2014.

"Yet, the vice-chancellors have wrongly opted to be political tools to undermine students' freedom and thinking. This is utterly regrettable.

"We urge that UM return to their original path of focusing on academic performance and to retract the show-cause letter to Anis Syafiqah in the interest of its integrity, which is now in question," he said in a statement.

Wong added the charge that she had undermined the university's "interest, name and harmony" is unreasonable because the 'Tangkap MO1' rally in Kuala Lumpur was peaceful.

Anis Syafiqah led a group of 1,500 students in a march in downtown on Aug 27, to following the US Department of Justice's lawsuit to seize more than US$1 billion of funds believed to have been bought using cash allegedly siphoned from 1MDB.

The DOJ in the lawsuit said a high-ranking Malaysian official, related to Najib's stepson Riza Aziz, received US$730 million which originated from 1MDB.

The official is referred to as 'Malaysian Official 1', and not by name, because he is not the subject of the suit which aims to seize assets in the US.

The assets include future proceeds of the film 'The Wolf of Wall Street' produced by Red Granite Pictures, a Hollywood production firm founded by Riza.

Others named in the suit are Malaysian businessman Jho Low and Abu Dhabi corporate figures, Mohamed Badawy al-Husseiny and Khadem al-Qubaisi.

Those objecting the DOJ's civil forfeiture action have until Oct 28 to respond to the suit.