UPM student group protests Hadi talk fiasco, wants MoE to explain

A group of Universiti Putra Malaysia students will send a memorandum to the Education Ministry on Friday to seek an explanation on PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang being prevented from appearing in a programme held yesterday.

The Muslim Students' Association, which is the programme organiser, claimed that the Education Ministry was irresponsible, as it failed to uphold the aspiration of academic freedom and the strengthening of the university's autonomy, as raised by Education Minister Maszlee Malik.

"The association believes that some invisible hands had pressured the university to issue a postponement letter for their own interest," association president Muhammad Hakim Paimin said at a solidarity event at UPM yesterday.

The Coalition of the National Muslim Students Muhammad Ikhwan Nasyriq Salahin, PAS Students chairperson Aiman Mohd Yusof and UPM's Student Representative Council member Arman Usman were among those present at the event.

The event was called "the Solidarity for the death of the academic freedom".

Muhammad Ikhwan urged the Education Ministry to explain the guideline to invite Hadi as a programme guest in universities.

"We want academic freedom as voiced out by Maszlee. The university should be free to get involved in politics without any interference by the Education Ministry," he said.

On Monday, Hadi shared the letter from the university to the association, requesting its president to postpone the exclusive talk programme featuring the PAS president a day before the event was to be held.

The letter cited the postponement as due to "the inevitable reason". It also stated that UPM would replace the slot in an intellectual discourse session at a later date.

Muhammad Hakim had said that they were shocked by the news as the university had, prior to that, approved the programme.

"We had booked the date for Tuan Guru (Hadi) since the previous semester several months ago and sent the official invitation letter on Nov 7.

"There shouldn't be an issue as the Students’ Welfare Department (Hal Ehwal Pelajar of UPM) had approved (the programme)," Muhammad Hakim said.

The university has yet to issue a statement on its instruction for the event to be postponed. - Mkini