No harm in allowing political parties on campus, says ex-MP

 

The government is considering allowing political parties to set up branches in universities, according to higher education minister Khaled Nordin.

PETALING JAYA: There is no issue in allowing political parties to set up branches in universities since university students are of voting age, says a former Umno MP.

Former Sungai Benut MP Tawfik Ismail said it was not surprising that political parties in the government would want to expand their influence to this “vote bank”, regardless of any legislation on students in politics.

“Now that the voting age is 18 and evidenced by the ‘green wave’ in the last general election (GE15), we are already politicising youths. So, it is already happening,” Tawfik told FMT.

The “green wave” refers to PAS’ performance in GE15, with the Islamic party winning 43 seats and its supporters helping its Perikatan Nasional (PN) partner Bersatu to clinch 31 seats too.

Tawfik pointed out that in Europe, youth participation in politics was the norm and it also helped to supply a pool of future leaders.

“If political parties want to recover lost votes, this would be a way to do it,” he said.

Last week, higher education minister Khaled Nordin told the Dewan Rakyat the government would not discount the possibility of allowing political parties to set up branches in universities.

He was responding to a question by Mersing MP Islahuddin Abas on whether any amendments would be made to the controversial Universities and University Colleges Act (Auku) 1971 to allow political parties to do so.

Former Klang MP Charles Santiago shared similar sentiments with Tawfik, saying it gave students the opportunity to take part and raise concerns directly with the parties they wanted to affiliate with.

He also rubbished claims that the presence of political parties on campus could lead to indoctrination.

“Indoctrination can take place anywhere and anytime. It can start as early as childhood, and we see it on social media, too,” he said. “Why should we assume that if there are political parties (on campus), one would get indoctrinated?”

He was responding to a statement from student group Angkatan Mahasiswa University Malaya which said political parties should not be allowed to open branches in universities because it could lead to indoctrination and undermine democracy in campus elections.

It added that such a move will also undermine democracy when it comes to campus elections.

“It will weaken those who are not funded by political parties and eliminate the impact of the student movement,” it said, adding that the student movement will be weakened if it were to be guided by political parties.

Universiti Malaya Students’ Union president Ooi Guo Shen also said it was not healthy to mix external politics and party agendas with student affairs.

“This is because political agendas would then take precedence over student agendas, which corrupts the nature of student affairs,” he said.

However, Ooi said, it also boiled down to the maturity of student leaders, whether they can leverage external parties for more resources and platforms to voice out student concerns.

“Remaining independent from external party control and maintaining independent thinking would be most favourable,” he said. - FMT