From dissenters, ‘pervert professor’ to cat lovers: Is there looming reputational crisis at UM?

 

NOBODY should envy Prof Datuk Seri Dr Noor Azuan Abu Osman. Appointed as the Universiti Malaya vice-chancellor since Nov 3 last year for a three-year term, he has to face a barrage of criticism on behalf of the nation’s oldest public institution of higher studies.

There are at least three incidences where the image of yours truly alma mater has taken a drubbing this week alone. Let’s start with the latest first.

Incident #1: No action against sexting academician 

Yesterday (Dec 20), news portal Scoop cheekily portrayed how the number of auxiliary police outnumbered gathering supporters of the UM Feminism Club (UMFC) during the handing over of a memorandum to the university’s top management following the recent sexting incident involving a professor from the Institute of Mathematical Sciences.

Hesitation on the part of the university’s administration to receive the memorandum had apparently led to a shouting match with UMFC president Chin Jes Weng repeatedly chanted “turun VC (come down, VC)” which apparently could be misconstrued as UMFC demanding for Noor Azuan’s resignation.

According to UMFC, there’re had been multiple reports of the said lecturer sending explicit photos to students but they were ignored until a student publicly posted the professor’s photos as a warning.

“The photos were quickly removed and within a week of UMFC exposing the case, the university finally announced it was investigating,” the club pointed out in a media statement.

“By failing to act decisively, the university allowed repeated offenses, forcing victims to resort to drastic measures like posting the photos. It only responded when the case became public, raising questions about whether its priority is student safety or the institution’s reputation.

Incident #2: “Cat mutilated with dismembered limbs”

Just barely 24 hours prior to the UMFC, animal lovers were up in arms after a cat lover revealed that there was “a new cat fondly known as Lily found with its leg chopped off at UM!”

This came about at UM attributed to the death of cats – believed to be the fifth such incident in its campus – to wild dogs.

“What’s all this? Damn it, don’t blame it on the dog when you’ve a killer on the loose,” lambasted Post min min (@itsybitsymin) whose post on the X platform has garnered 1M views at the time of writing.

In its defence, the UM management has lodged another police report regarding the incident that befell Lily yesterday (Dec 20).

In a media statement, UM said that the management is very concerned about the developments involving the gruesome deaths of several cats around the campus and is committed to ensuring that the campus area is a safe environment.

“This incident is the second such case to occur and this step was taken to assist the authorities in conducting further investigations so as to ensure that action is taken if there is an element of human abuse,” it added.

Incident #3: Siti Kasim ‘wages’ war against UM

This came about as the human rights activist and lawyer claimed that her presence as a speaker of the “Malaysia’s Identity Crisis: Is Malaysia a Secular or an Islamic Country” forum had led to the eleventh-hour cancellation of the event slated for Dec 17.

Stating that she came to know of the event’s postponement which she interpreted as “cancelled” late the night before (Dec 16), Siti Kasim said she would not blame the organiser – the UM Association of New Youth (UMANY) – but faulted the management of Malaysia’s oldest public university for deeming her as “a controversial figure, hence shouldn’t be invited”.

“Are you running a kindergarten or a tahfiz school or what? You only want your students to hear what you want them to hear or are you getting directive from somebody who doesn’t want the students to hear alternative views?” fumed Siti Kasim in a YouTube video.

“Similarly, I heard Fahmi Redza’s (human rights defender, satirical artist and filmmaker) talk was also brough down two to three days ago while he was livestreaming on TikTok a Student Power lecture session at UM.” - Focus Malaysia