A major student organisation was shunned yet again as it was denied an opportunity to meet with Higher Education Minister Mustapa Mohamed on grounds that it is an illegal body.

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak said that the Solidarity Mahasiswa Malaysia (SMM) - a nationwide anti-establishment student coalition - was not a registered body under the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA)

He was quizzed by reporters after attending a closed-door meeting with another group of 300 students at a government consultation with the student representative councils from local and public universities to discuss issues affecting students.

"We do not give the same treatment as those student bodies registered under UUCA. They (SMM) do not have the formal recognition," he asserted, who was at the meeting with Mustapa.

Over 200 SMM students had gathered in protest outside the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon, seeking to hand a memorandum to Mustapa.

The memorandum includes demands for the abolishment of the UUCA, campus elections be put off and the setting up of an independent campus election monitoring body.

They waved banners and sang songs before spending almost an hour sitting outside the PWTC entrance as the doors were locked barring their entry into the building.

There were approximately 15 uniformed police officers guarding the area.

Negotiations between the police, PWTC staff and representatives of SMM then took place of which only 20 people were allowed to meet with Mustapa's special officer, Ahmad Ikhmal Ismail.

Rival student group backs UUCA

After the 30-minute meet in the lobby with Ahmad Ikhmal, SMM president Mohd Nazri Yunus announced that they had failed to deliver the memorandum to Mustapa.

He expressed disappointment that the higher education minister had used the student consultation meeting as an excuse not to meet them.

"We want to tell them that if (Mustapa) is really sincere in making student lives better to officially meet with us. That is all we want - to speak and to have a question-and-answer session (with the minister)," he said.

Meanwhile, while this was going on outside PWTC, another memorandum was handed to Najib by pro-establishment National Technical University College Malaysia (KUTKM) president Raja Nor Azrin Raja Yunus, who represented all the other student councils.

The memorandum calls on the government to take action against their SMM rivals as they 'threaten the peace and harmony in campuses'.

The 300 pro-establishment students - representing 18 public and 26 private universities - had a two-hour meeting with both Najib and Mustapa inside PWTC ( left ).

According to their memorandum, the campus elections are going well and there is no reason to accept Human Rights Commission's (Suhakam) interference in monitoring them.

It stated that Suhakam's involvement would be seen as 'transgressing into the university's rights'.

Seventeen public universities will be holding campus elections nationwide next Thursday, which will pit pro-establishment students against anti-establishment students.

Over the years, pro-establishment students have scored victories in most campuses with the help from the university authorities.

Anti-establishment students have cried foul over 'unfair' elections rules and had repeatedly called for Suhakam to monitor the polls.

Raja Nor Azrin also defended the UUCA and stressed that it should not be abolished.