KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 — The US Embassy here has expressed support for the right of University of Malaya (UM) students to protest during US president Barack Obama’s historic visit here last month, which the university is now investigating.

In a letter dated May 21 and made available to the media today, US Ambassador to Malaysia Joseph Y. Yun affirmed the US’ backing for the right to peacefully protest, noting that it did not demand for a probe of the UM students who protested.

“As you note, the United States firmly supports the right to freedom of expression and association, including the right to peaceful protest without fear of reprisal.

“The protest was brief and peaceful, and the United States found no reason to raise the matter with the University nor to ask the University to investigate the students involved,” Yun wrote in reply to University of Malaya Student’s Representative Council (MPPUM)’s email on May 9.

Lee Jin Yang, the MPPUM deputy president, expressed appreciation for what he described as the US’ “letter of support”, contrasting it with UM’s probe on four student leaders for allegedly damaging the university’s reputation with their protest.

“However, although we have a different stand, we deeply appreciate the US embassy for upholding the universal values of freedom of expression and freedom of association,” the leader of the body that represents around 20,000 UM students wrote in an email to the media today.

On April 27, Obama spoke at the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) Town Hall event held in UM, where strict controls were imposed on entry for the gathering.

When contacted today, Lee said about 100 students who were not allowed into the town hall meeting staged a protest against the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) and to demand that the US respond to the hundreds of death sentences meted out in Egypt.

Six UM students who gained admittance to the meeting then took out placards to protest, he said.

On May 8, the university’s administration issued show cause letters to four of the six students for displaying placards during the event.

In the letter sighted by the Malay Mail Online, UM told Lee that his actions had allegedly “damaged or jeopardised the interests, welfare and the good name of Universiti Malaya”.

“Your actions have clearly breached the rules of the town hall meeting that prohibit any placards from being brought in or displayed during the meeting,” the letter said.

But Lee said that US officials had not sought to remove the placards from the students during the meeting, pointing out that they were simply exercising their constitutional right to expression.

“UM is not the organiser and the organiser, the US, didn’t take away the students’ A2 paper, and they didn’t expel the students. And we are protected under Constitution. Thus we feel it is ridiculous when the US is OK with it,” he told the Malay Mail Online.

The four who were issued with the show cause letters are MPPUM secretary general Fahmi Zainol, deputy secretary general Leong Yu Sheng and exco member for welfare Anis Nabihah Alias, as well as Lee himself.

Three of them replied the show cause letters before the May 15 deadline, but Fahmi decided not to do so, Lee said.

In a typical disciplinary process, students issued with a show cause letter must reply to the university, with the university then holding disciplinary hearings if it is dissatisfied with their explanation, Lee explained.

Suspension from studies is a possible consequence that the students may have to face, he said, adding: “That’s why we think freedom of expression and campus democracy have been curtailed.”

In the same email to the media, Lee also expressed the student council’s sadness at UM’s action and urged for the repeal of a law seen as restricting academic freedom.

“University of Malaya has to [improve] its campus democracy and the Universities and University Colleges Act has to be abolished if University of Malaya really wants to be among the top [universities] in the world,” he wrote.