YOURSAY | ‘Students have every right to protest against kleptocracy.’
Anonymous 2461101488710988: Shame on you, Universiti Malaya (UM) vice-chancellor Abdul Rahim Hashim, for taking the easy way out.
Your undergraduates were being brutally manhandled and you find it convenient to look the other way. What an embarrassment.
Cyclonus: Whoa, Mr Vice-Chancellor, who initiated the physical attack? The last time I checked, nobody goes to jail for verbal provocation, but people can definitely get charged for physical abuse.
Anyway, shouldn't these older and mature adults be setting an example instead of taking these young students head on? And aren't these kids practising free speech (albeit a little raw)?
Shibboleth: Holding placards and a caricature is considered provocative? Please. Which planet are you from?
Perhaps if the placard mocked a ruler or a certain religion, then it may be interpreted as provocative. But against an alleged offender who is a disgraceful politician?
Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak should know better - as a politician, being mocked, criticised or slandered is par for the course.
Truthseeker: I would have thought the vice-chancellor of a university would protect his or her students, but Rahim’s statement smacks of what US President Donald Trump said after the 2017 Charlottesville rally on “both sides” being at fault.
Gerard Lourdesamy: Without visual and verbal ‘provocations’, then how to protest? Just stand mute and stare at Najib?
How can Abdul Rahim be the vice-chancellor of UM? He is clearly hedging because it was BN that appointed him to the post. Yet the education minister wants to retain such products of Umno in our public universities.
The slogans used by the students are justified based on the numerous criminal charges laid against Najib by the attorney-general (AG) and the findings of the US Department of Justice (DOJ).
So how can that amount to provocation if based on current facts?
Abasir: It is Najib who is the provocateur, his face with a permanent smug etched by years of entitlement and undeserved privilege, his shameless swag, the thugs he had in tow, and his well-practiced scheming (last exercised with 1MDB) when he appeared at the restaurant after allegedly notifying the owner that he will not be there.
UM vice-chancellor Abdul Rahim, in turn, has proved that he is a politically-correct, third-rate politician first and last.
Had he been any better, he would have gotten off the fence on which he is perched and made a courageous statement condemning the thuggery that passes for Umno politics.
But this, like much of the nonsense that Malaysians have to sit through every day, is the after-effect of Mahathirism and the acts that undermined education for one and brought imbeciles to the fore.
Darmakochi: Dear vice chancellor, you are a real shame to the varsity. I graduated from UM in 1975, likely when you were still a small kid.
UM is the oldest university in our country. I was very proud to have studied in UM then, but am now ashamed with the way it is handling the students who were protesting peacefully against the kleptocracy that had ruined the nation.
You ought to be proud of these students instead of putting the blame on them.
Anonymous_1538808416: The man who grabbed UM Association of New Youth president Wong Yan Ke from behind and tried to pull him over the railing committed serious physical assault, and should be arrested swiftly without question.
It is sad to hear that the university vice-chancellor doesn’t see it that way, but lays blame instead on the students for starting the provocation.
Even if that were the case, common law tells us that assault is primary, provocation is secondary.
Clever Voter: Education Minister Maszlee Malik is right in saying that university vice-chancellors should condemn the thuggish behaviour the individuals who attacked protesting students last Friday. All universities must condemn such unacceptable behaviour.
But not all of the leaders in the public universities are his supporters. Easily more than half were part of the previous regime.
Maszlee could go one step further, and work with the Home Ministry to act on such individuals. Actions speak louder than words.
Mohd Isnin: Universities should rightly condemn the behaviour of the Umno leaders for laying their hands on university students.
Remove the vice-chancellors who do not know how to impart proper values to their students. If these chancellors are going to keep quiet and accept the thuggish behaviour demonstrated by some Umno members, then students can bid farewell to education.
There is no point crediting yourselves as chiefs of educational institutions if society is encouraged to accept the behaviour of the Umno rogues.
Coexist: The university is supposed to be the place to learn about discourse, democracy and analytical thinking. Students have every right to protest against kleptocracy.
It is wrong for the Najib supporters, led by Umno supreme council member Lokman Noor Adam, to attack a peaceful protest.
Anonymous 770241447347646: The fact is, the authorities responsible for curbing such activities and bringing those responsible to justice are lax.
Maszlee should target his anger at them, now that he is part of the administration.
Quo Vadis: Words and more words yet again from a Pakatan Harapan leader. Where is the police action against the identified Umno leaders, all of whom were caught in photos and on video?
How about their harassment of Malaysiakini interns? Enough is enough.
Chokstone: The UM vice-chancellor is but a representation of the situation in the country right now.
Everyone seems to have been influenced by the extremist rhetoric of Umno-PAS, to the extent that not many will come to the defence of bullied minorities, lest they offend the ‘3R’ sensitivities.
Even the police seem to be hesitant to arrest the culprits. The racial extremism brought by Umno-PAS is now standing tall in our country despite Harapan being in Putrajaya.
The ‘reformasi’ dream seems to have gone down the drain. - Mkini
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