A student activist has rebuffed criticism against his objections to Universiti Malaya’s (UM) plans to separate operating hours for male and female students to use the campus gym.
Dhurgesswaran Veeran also dismissed criticisms against him for speaking Mandarin at the press conference.
The 24-year-old fell into the spotlight after a video excerpt of his remarks was posted on social media on Monday.
The post by content farm MyNewsHub on X had questioned why Dhurgesswaran was objecting to UM gender-segregating gym hours.
Speaking to Malaysiakini, the former UM Student’s Union (UMSU) deputy secretary-general defended his remarks - which he said were made in December.
“Each student has their own schedule, so how do we allocate the gym session fairly?
“After the press conference, I met with the management and they too said the same thing,” he said.
The final-year law student said he was unperturbed by the criticisms levelled against him on social media.
However, the university management had reprimanded him regarding his views on the gym hours, Dhurgesswaran said.
“So far, I don’t feel anything. I just don’t think what I did was wrong,” he stressed.
‘Chinese media coverage’
Besides those defending UM’s plans to segregate gym hours, many comments on X also criticised Dhurgesswaran for not speaking Malay at the press conference.
Commenting on this, Dhurgesswaran said he spoke Mandarin as most of those who attended the press conference in December were from the Chinese media.
“We invited all media but only those from Mandarin newspapers came,” he said.
He added that the only English media that covered the event was Free Malaysia Today.
On his fluency in Mandarin, Dhurgesswaran said he had been fluent since he was in school.
“That is why I spoke in Mandarin in the video,” he said. - Mkini
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