Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe by Email This is a first. I never heard of any private college/university students protesting before. Anyway, the issue is the arrest of BERSIH activitist Wong Chin Huat for allegedly seditious act of inciting the public to wear black (wonder how LKW staff will feel!) due to ‘death of democracy’ in Perak. He had been wearing black for last 89 days before his arrest under section 4 of Sedition Act. So, about 20 0r so of his students at Monash University, calling themselves Students of Chin Huat Against Repression (SCAR) gathered at the campus and issued a statement:
In a statement, the group – – demanded Wong’s immediate release, saying Wong, who was arrested under Sedition Act on Tuesday night, did not do anything wrong.
“The university’s students and former students strongly condemn his arrest,” it said, adding that Wong only wanted to make Malaysia a cleaner and more democratic country and urged the college to make a stand on the matter.
The students gathered for 10 minutes at the campus’ main gate at 12.30pm before dispersing.
Interestingly, according to MOHE official, the Universities and University Colleges Act did not apply to private higher education institutions.
“Even for public universities, the Act does not apply to Universiti Teknologi Mara and International Islamic University Malaysia as both have their own Acts,” he said.
Hmm…so there are thousands of students out there who can voice out their thoughts without fear from overzealous officials.
The police, as usual, arrested people who came to the candlelight vigils in support of Wong at police station for the last two nights. There were also arrests in Kuching, Sarawak. Even lawyers who came to represent the detained were arrested, a move which pissed off the Bar Council.
I’m proud of my varsity!
Go Monash! 🙂