KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 — Universiti Malaya (UM) initiated today disciplinary charges against its student council president Fahmi Zainol and other undergraduates for organising a campus talk featuring controversial alumnus, Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim last Monday.

News portal Malaysiakini reported this evening that the university has issued a letter to Fahmi with a list of nine alleged transgressions, and told the student leader to attend a disciplinary hearing at the university on November 7.

The letter was emailed to Fahmi about 7pm, and bore the signature of UM’s student disciplinary committee chairman Professor Dr Zanariah Abdullah, Malaysiakini reported.

Among charges levelled against him are organising and attending a rally on campus that was not sanctioned by UM’s vice-chancellor, the conduct of which the news report quotes as “damaging or prejudicial to the interests, peace, and reputation of the university”, public security and inconveniencing persons on campus.

The university also reportedly took issue with Fahmi for his failure to reply to a show-cause letter sent to him dated October 23, where the administration demanded he explain within 24 hours, his invitation to Anwar for a talk on campus grounds, titled “40 Years: From University of Malaya to Jail”.

In the show-cause letter, Fahmi was warned that he faces suspension from studies for one or two semesters and a RM200 fine if he refused to cancel the event.

The event proceeded at the campus on Monday night despite a downpour and a campus lockdown; UM students stormed the gates past the hapless security guards and moved onwards to Dewan Tunku Canselor where the talk was scheduled to be held, though the building and its immediate vicinity was blanketed in darkness.

Anwar arrived and addressed thousands of students who had gathered opposite the Dewan Tunku Canselor using a microphone.

The university filed a police report over the event the next day, claiming trespass and damage to property.

Izzad Zalman Abdul Kader, who heads UM’s media unit, told Malay Mail Online then that UM had launched an internal inquiry into all UM students who were involved in the controversial talk as it was conducted without approval.

“All investigations will be carried out based on the parameters set out in these two legal acts,” he said, referring to the Universities and University Colleges Act 1979, which was amended in 2012 and the Kaedah-Kaedah Universiti Malaya (Tatatertib Pelajar) 1999 or the University of Malaya (Discipline of Student) Rules 1999.

The disciplinary actions that could be meted out to students would depend on the outcome of the probe by the UM administration and “what is spelt out” in the regulations itself, he said.

When asked about UM Student Council (PMUM) president Fahmi Zainol’s case, Izzad said that was under the jurisdiction of the university’s student affairs division.

The university’s disciplinary powers are vested in the Vice-Chancellor, who will typically decide at the end of a probe whether a disciplinary board must be convened for a case, UM student affairs division’s deputy registrar K. Puniamurthy told Malay Mail Online earlier this week.

The vice-chancellor also has the discretion to set up an investigating committee to conduct a probe on a case, Puniamurthy said.