MALAYSIA: Student Activism, a Definite No – Say Authorities

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Anil Netto

PENANG, Malaysia, Nov 28 2004 (IPS) - Student activism and politics just don’t mix in Malaysia – at least in the eyes of university authorities. And third year journalism student Soh Sook Hwa can bear testimony to that.

The Science University of Malaysia (USM) student is paying the price for her picture appearing in several newspapers, suggesting that she was involved in an opposition campaign in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, during the general election earlier this year.

Soh’s case illustrates the minefield students have to tread once they become socially and politically aware in a country where students are barred from taking an active part in politics – whether in campus or outside.

On Nov. 24, top administration officials at USM grilled Soh for close to two hours on her role during the March general election – and then slapped her with a gag order, forbidding the student from revealing what transpired during the inquiry. A final decision on her fate was deferred to a later date – perhaps due to the strong protests from civil society groups and opposition parties.

More than 50 civil society groups endorsed a memorandum calling for the charges to be dropped while the youth wing of the opposition Democratic Action Party held a brief demonstration outside campus on the eve of the inquiry under the watchful eyes of security personnel.

At the national polls on Mar. 21, the ruling National Front (NF) coalition led by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi scored its largest-ever electoral win. It won 198 of the total of 219 parliamentary seats, up 50 from the 1999 election. Badawi’s own United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the major component of the NF coalition, increased its seats from 71 to 109.

In the run-up to the inquiry, security at the USM campus was tightened as Soh’s case drew nationwide attention. On the day of the hearing, taking no chances, security personnel set up several checkpoints on campus roads.

Under the stifling Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA), no student can show – even indirectly – support for any political party, trade unions or organisation without the express permission from university authorities.

Still, that has not stopped the ruling UMNO from setting up its support clubs abroad for Malaysian students pursuing courses in foreign universities.

But within Malaysia, the law has led to subtle changes. ”Over the years, since the early 1970s, the UUCA has made students more apolitical,” says Ginie Lim, secretary for national affairs of the Malaysian Youth and Students Democratic Movement (DEMA)..

”It is a silent and slow process – so that most people are not aware of it at all. It makes students who are active (in socio-political issues) reluctant to speak out or take action,” she tells IPS.

Despite a host of restrictions in campus elections, many Malaysian institutes of higher learning witness keenly contested elections between groups loosely known as pro- ‘government aspiration’ candidates and ‘anti-establishment’ students.

According to one report, the ‘anti-establishment’ camp in USM won 19 seats as opposed to the ‘pro-establishment’s’ 18 seats in campus polls held in September. Last month, USM authorities reportedly told the 37 elected student representatives to declare their political stand and then informed them that the police special branch wing would be making inquiries into their political leanings.

At the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), meanwhile, 24 students – including 22 elected student representatives – seen as belonging to the ‘anti-establishment’ camp were hauled up for a disciplinary hearing for breaching minor university election rules on Nov. 25. Their fate will be known next week.

Soh’s is just one of a string of cases that clearly shows the lack of tolerance for students who express themselves in ways that officials may regard as running counter to the dominant political ideology.

Though Soh is forbidden from speaking to the media, former students have shared their experience with IPS about the perils of student activism on Malaysian campuses.

DEMA’s Lim, who graduated in journalism from USM this year, recalls her own experience in running a student representatives’ counter on campus. She had overseen a corner at the counter that allowed students to lodge complaints such as dissatisfaction with the campus bus service, unhappiness over having to wear student identification tags and problems with student loans.

”For that I was called up to the security department,” said Lim. ”They asked me why (the students) were writing things that could tarnish the image of the university. They also asked why I was doing it (running the corner) without permission. They are always insisting on permits – we need to have permission to do this and permission to do that.”

One young activist who has been highlighting Soh’s plight is Choo Chon Kai, coordinator of human rights group Suaram’s office in Penang. Choo knows exactly what Soh is going through having himself been hauled up by USM authorities in 2001, when he was then a top chemistry student there.

His offence? Being in possession of and selling badges that were part of a campaign against the draconian Internal Security Act, which allows indefinite detention without trial in Malaysia.

”It is more like an interrogation of the student than an inquiry,” he recalls of the grilling he had to undergo for more than an hour.

In his case, he said he had to answer a volley of questions from a panel comprising the deputy vice-chancellor, two deans, the campus security department director and the assistant registrar of the students’ affairs department. ”You need to answer all their questions and there is no lawyer to defend you.”

Choo said he was also warned not to tell anyone outside the room what happened during the inquiry. In the end, he was suspended for a semester.

Meanwhile Soh’s fate hangs in the balance. ”Somehow, I doubt that Soh…will be easily let off the hook,” wrote Chuah Siew Eng, another ex-USM student-turned-activist, in a letter to online web portal ‘Malaysiakini’.

”If this is how we ‘groom’ the next generation of leaders in Malaysia, imagine the state of the country to come,” she said. ”Please don’t treat (university students) like mindless robots incapable of independent thought. Groom them right so that they will be able to confidently assume the mantle of leadership when their turn comes.”