Bernama reported that about 5,000 UiTM students from the Permatang Pauh branch campus staged a peaceful demonstration against the proposal made by Selangor Menteri Besar recently that the university be opened to non-bumiputera students. (Also see here and here.)
By the way, the protest here may just be concidental given that the nomination day for the Permatang Pauh by-election will be tomorrow.
This demonstration is a part of similar street protests staged by the university students from the various UiTM branch campuses all over the country.
One of the questions that desperately begs asking: Is this the dawn of university liberalisation and student activism in the wake of the government’s plan to amend the University and University Colleges Act (UUCA)? That is, does the amendment go beyond the freedom of students to meet political leaders?
Does this mean that university students nationwide can stage peaceful demonstrations that revolve around larger issues, such as protests against corruption, petrol price hike, curbs on press freedom, racism, inter- and intra-ethnic income gap, social injustice, etc?
Can the students also voice their views and criticisms off the streets, namely through the media and Speaker’s Corners of their respective university campuses?
Or are we on a different page here?
