UPSI denies performance for minister, but not rehearsals during MCO

University Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) has denied a Malaysiakini report, saying it had not made students put up a performance when Higher Education Minister Noraini Ahmad visited today.

Malaysiakini in its article had mentioned in the opening paragraphs that the performance was cancelled but only after 20 students were directed to practice a week earlier. The university did not address the issue of these rehearsals during the ongoing movement control order.

In a statement posted on Facebook this evening, UPSI vice-chancellor Mohammad Shatar Sabran admitted that there were initial plans for a student performance.

"However, after discussing with the Health Ministry and the Higher Education Ministry, only four people from upper management, including the student council chairperson, met with Noraini at the student centre," he said.

He added that four Higher Education Ministry officers were also present during the visit.

"There was no performance as what was said that 20 students from the Music and Performing Arts Faculty would be attending the event," he said.

In light of this, the president of UPSI Academic Association Mohd Faizal Nizam Lee Abdullah and UPSI General Officers Association president Saiful Lizan Mohd Lajis will be lodging a police report denying that their associations had made pleas for the minister to postpone the visit, pleas which they claim were published by Malaysiakini.

Malaysiakini did not mention either association in its article nor did it report that any such pleas were made.

A staff member, who declined to reveal his identity, told Malaysiakini that although the student performance was ultimately cancelled at the last minute, the superiors' actions were irresponsible because they had been practising for a week before the programme.

“That (training) is against the rules and directives of the MCO. Student activities should have been discontinued, but practices were held during the MCO period,” he said when contacted by Malaysiakini.

A memo from the UPSI chancellery office from the vice-chancellor to Faculty of Music and Performing Arts (FMSP) Associate Professor Mohd Azam Sulong sighted by Malaysiakini and dated April 2, showed a request for the performance in conjunction with Noraini's visit.

Ironically, the purpose of the visit was to review the preparedness of UPSI's Covid-19 task force in its effort to deal with any outbreak that may occur on campus.

For the record, the MCO initially ran from March 18 to 31 but was then extended to April 14 as a move by the government to reduce or break the chain of coronavirus infections.

The MCO has witnessed careful control of the public's movement with the closure of many government and private premises except for essential services. - Mkini