Umany: PM wrong to assume students back govt

Representatives are elected by more than 10,000 students but this time the turnout was only 900, says association.

KUALA LUMPUR: University Malaya Association of New Youth (Umany) has refuted Prime Minister Najib Razak’s claim that students still supported the government because the Pro-Mahasiswa UM boycotted the campus elections.

Umany said in a statement today that Universiti Malaya’s election “won” by Penggerak could never reflect students’ support nor popularity of the government.

Najib had said the results of campus elections in local universities had shown that Umno was still supported by the Gen Y because the pro-government groups won in campus elections.

Umany found Najib’s statement to be misleading.

It said that in order to let Penggerak win the campus election, the university authorities disbanded the UM Student Council that was still governed by Pro-Mahasiswa as well as organising a lightning election.

Umany and Pro-Mahasiswa fully boycotted the campus elections to protest against its unfairness.

The university authorities cancelled classes of some faculties on the voting day and ordered staff and lecturers to instruct students to vote.

“It is crystal clear that Penggerak won this campus election simply because Pro-Mahasiswa had boycotted it,” the statement said.

It added that the majority seats won uncontested by Penggerak could not reflect what Najib had said about students being satisfied with the current government.

Another factor was the very low voter turnout.

“For many years, student representatives were elected by more than 10,000 students. But what we saw was that only 900 students voted.

“Students responded to our call and proved that the majority rejected Penggerak.

“The plunge of voter turnout in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Economics and Administration were the most obvious with only one-fourth of the students voting in each faculty.

“Besides, in 10 seats that were contested, Penggerak had only won four seats! This clearly shows that students chose independent candidates rather than Penggerak’s,” it added.

The statement noted that despite the university authorities working hand in glove with Umno by organising lightning elections and using the e-voting system to allow Penggerak to win the campus election, UM students firmly rejected Penggerak.