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Say ‘No’ to Political Intervention, ‘Yes’ to Immediate Election



The Universiti Malaya Campus Election Committee (UMCEC) had previously on two separate accounts, dated 27 June and 10 July respectively, postponed the supposedly annual Universiti Malaya campus election. This indefinite postponement is the result of the university’s Board of Directors (the Board) making things hard for UMCEC upon the intervention of the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE). 

According to sources from UMCEC and the Universiti Malaya Students’ Union (UMSU), the MoHE had given a suggestion to standardise all campus elections in the first academic semester across public universities. A member of MoHE sitting in the Board later directed UMCEC to adhere to the suggestion. Consequently, various university departments started taking orders from the MoHE to suggest delaying the campus election.

Suara Siswa UM believes the interference of the MoHE and the UM management in the campus election had overridden the rights of UMCEC in organising the election and infringed the autonomy of UM students. We also suspect the possibility of the involvement of political interference in which certain parties are trying to gain political benefits by interfering with the campus election.

The purpose of the UM campus election is to vote for a new UMSU leadership. The campus election plays a vital role in promoting campus democracy and check-and-balance. If the campus election is interfered with by external political forces, the institutional reforms carried out in UM in the past few years will be in peril while the rights and autonomy of UM students will be deprived once more.

Therefore, Suara Siswa strongly opposes and condemns the interference of the MoHE and the UM management in postponing the election. We urge the management to make a public explanation to reveal the truth behind this incident of interference in the campus election.

Suara Siswa also calls upon all UM students to defend student autonomy, oppose political interference, stand in solidarity with UMCEC, and support the petition by UMCEC.

Suara Siswa UM


Petition link: http://chng.it/TjwtGGfNkC

#SayNoToPoliticalIntervention #YesToImmediateElection


Suara Siswa Component Members:

Angkatan Mahasiswa UM

Demokrat UM

UMANY

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