A second-year Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) student is facing disciplinary action for allegedly being involved in campaigning against the campus' student elections - marred by intimidation and irregularities - last month.

Her two charges are 'instigating" students to boycott the campus election on Sept 29 and for being involved in an assembly in front of the National Mosque on Oct 7 which later marched to the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) office to submit a memorandum on the campus election.

Lim Sook Swan, 21, from the modern languages and communications faculty, received the show-cause letter - dated Oct 17 - from the campus' Student Affairs Department on Wednesday afternoon.

The letter, a copy of which was made available to malaysiakini , was signed by UPM deputy vice-chancellor (Student Affairs Department) Prof Dr Azali Mohamed and gave Lim a less than 24-hour notice to turn up for disciplinary proceedings on 9am the next morning.

The letter said the campus authorities would deliver a verdict if she was absent. The two charges under the university's disciplinary rules are empowered by the Universities and University Colleges Act.

Another victim

According to a statement today from Simon Ooi, spokesperson for UPM student group 'UPM Progressive Movement', Lim attended the proceedings where she denied the two charges. The disciplinary panel then postponed the proceedings to next Monday to enable Lim to prepare her defence.

Lim, who is seen to be aligned to the 'anti-establishment' student group (or popularly known as idealis mahasiswa ) also requested for legal representation but this was rejected by the panel.

It is expected that the university will be taking action against more 'anti-establishment' students in the near future. Malaysiakini understands that another UPM student leader from the same group has also received a similar show-cause letter.

However, on top of the two charges similar to Lim's, this student faces a third charge in relation to his presence at a gathering outside the Parliament on Sept 21 to call for a free and fair campus elections.

When contacted, Suhakam commissioner N Siva Subramaniam urged students who are being victimised in such fashion to come forward and lodge a complaint with Suhakam to allow the body to investigate the matter.

"They (the students) marched peacefully to the Suhakam office and the police had no objection [...] is submitting memorandum to the human rights commission considered an offence?" he asked, adding that the commission will look into whether Lim's human rights had been violated.

Overt backing

In the controversial campus elections last month, all 17 public universities nationwide for the first time in history were won by 'pro-establishment' students camps ( aspirasi kerajaan ) which were backed by campus authorities. There were student boycotts at five major universities.

Over the years, government and campus authorities have overtly backed pro-establishment student factions in a bid to stamp out anti-government forces in campuses nationwide.

The pro-government groups, with the help from the authorities, have progressively knocked out anti-establishment students from the student representatives councils.