COMMENT | Universiti Malaya (UM) is apparently retrogressing to a state of tyranny, when it fined four of its students for holding up protest placards demanding an answer on the 1MDB scandal.

The appeal which will be held today will determine whether the four students, dubbed the Universiti Malaya Association of New Youth (Umany) 4, are able to clear their names.

Despite the 1MDB scandal receiving all the negative publicity worldwide, and the case is currently being investigated in eleven countries around the world, I am appalled that holding up placards can be considered an offence in the eyes of UM senior administration staff.

In the first place, the university should not have invited 1MDB president and CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy to speak on "1MDB and the Country’s Current Issue" unless it is truly interested to find out the truth.

What was the motive of the event’s host, Tun Faisal Ismail Aziz, when he organised the townhall meeting? As an Umno Youth exco member, was he seriously seeking for an answer and explanation from Arul Kanda?

Or was he trying to do a propaganda event at one of our universities in the name of a townhall meeting? He has no business in hosting the event in UM and technically UM should not even allow its facilities to be used for such talks if what appears is nothing but propaganda.

Face the opposition lawmakers instead

What was the reason why Arul Kanda accepted his invitation but did not accept the invitation from the opposition lawmakers who represent the people who want to find out the truth behind the mother of scandals?

The United States Department of Justice has touted the 1MDB scandal as the biggest money-laundering scandal ever exposed in the US. Of course, Malaysians are generally anxious to know the truth, not to mention these four students who sat through the whole meeting to hear the explanation by Arul Kanda.

The students were merely demanding an answer. Anyone in their position would be concerned because we have heard too many spins from 1MDB, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his cabinet ministers. The truth has not been told.

If Arul Kanda was able to provide a plausible answer, he and Faisal should have responded positively to the demands by the students and proved that they had all the answers. Why charge them in the first place? What appears to me is that this was basically "institutional intimidation" of the students.

What was wrong?

Therefore, as pointed out by Bukit Lanjan state assemblyperson Elizabeth Wong, an attempt to deny Tan Jia You’s appeal yesterday is akin to a slap in the face of youths wanting to express their concerns over national issues. Yesterday’s appeal coincided with the National Youth Day.

The placards read, “Students want answers”, “1MDB don’t spin”, “1MDB - We want answers”, and “1MDB - Return the people’s money”.

How wrong can that be? As adults, we also want to know the answers, because the whole world is already talking about it. We have been labelled as a nation of kleptocrats.

How can the university accuse the students of doing things that are “detrimental to public order, decency, and discipline and also provoking or taking part in boycotting the university’s official event while the event is ongoing".

What kind of public order is UM referring to when the four only held up their placards at the end of the meeting? Did Faisal expect UM students to clap thunderously, even though the answers given by Arul Kanda were apparently anything but plausible?

Was Faisal expecting UM students to be some androids who would clap every word by Arul Kanda at the press of a remote control button? I hope not!

The fact that these four students waited till about 11.45pm to raise the placards clearly shows that they have sat through the meeting hoping to get an answer but they found none.

Applying disciplinary actions against these students is a gross mistake made by the university. Why could the students not raise something that concerns their future especially since the scandal involves billions of ringgit?

As pointed by Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh, 1MDB has become almost a four-letter word, which cannot be spoken anywhere, be in the Parliament or elsewhere.

I wish to salute the four courageous young men - Umany former president and Kesatuan Mahasiswa Malaysia (KMM) deputy president Ho Chi Yang, Umany deputy president and Student Representative of the Faculty of Business and Accountancy Tan Jia You, Umany head of publicity bureau Chua Hun Ti, as well as Umany secretary-general Lau Li Yang.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.