Students protest Kedah MB, want Kuin rector's head

Student group Solidariti Mahasiswa Malaysia (SMM) today staged a protest in front of the Kedah state secretariat building as promised, after Kedah MB Azizan Abdul Razak had failed to respond to their demands to retract his statements supporting the controversial Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA).

Some 50 students converged at the location in Alor Setar at 12pm, holding anti-UUCA banners while calling for Kolej Universiti Insaniah  (Kuin) rector Jamil Osman to be dismissed, chanting, “Reject UUCA, dismiss rector!”

In the hot afternoon sun, the protestors also painted a satire of Jamil’s portrait and placed flowers around it.  

Jamil has been blamed for suspending five students in May last year for objecting to the conversion of Kuin’s hostel and surau to a new secondary school.

Azizan, who is also chairperson of the state-owned university college, defended the move and said the five had been punished under Private Higher Education Institute Act 1996, an act deemed similar to the UUCA.

As the MB’s stand has sparked outcryamong Pakatan Rakyat partners, PAS hauled Azizan up in a central committee meeting last weekend and has promised to deliver a solution soon.

Two of the five students punished, Muhamad Aiman Ab Razab and Zuki Latif, attended the protest today and warned the Kedah PAS commissioner to be careful in his actions in the future.

“What we did not want to see has happened. Some of us have served the suspension and have resumed studies. These can’t be undone,” they said.

“So we only hope the Kedah MB can take this as a lesson and not repeat this,” they said when met by Azizan’s special assistant, Ismadi Abdul Kadir during the protest today.

The protesters dispersed peacefully three hours later, but the banner that read ‘Tolak Auku, pecat rector, Kedah aman’ (Reject UUCA, sack the rector, peace in Kedah) was left hanging on the fence.