KOTA KINABALU, Nov 10 — Universiti Malaya student leader and activist Fahmi Zainol considers his trip to Kota Kinabalu yesterday a success, despite having been detained by police twice, and being able to address students of University Malaysia Sabah only last night.

“I consider my visit here a success because I could open the eyes of the people, especially students in UMS. The authorities are so afraid of our voices that they hauled us in to the police station twice,” said the 23-year-old student.

Through Whatsapp messages with the Malay Mail Online, Fahmi said he had managed to meet some students at the Kolej E dormitory momentarily after his initial plan to have a gathering at the gates of UMS at 8pm were thwarted by the heavy presence of policemen.

“They received us well. But when we tried to address the crowd, the UMS authorities stopped us. The students themselves will be able to judge what happens. We were only trying to make a speech, we were not toting pistols,” he said.

Fahmi and seven other undergraduates were questioned by police and the university’s deputy vice chancellor in charge of student affairs Dr Ismail Ali. The students were heckled by a group of youths.

“They may have been gangsters from UMNO. We were going to talk about a RM10,000 funding by the Umno Youth of a pro-government UMS student candidate in the campus election. They didn’t want me to talk that’s why I was stopped,” said Fahmi.

“I don’t have any bad intentions towards Sabahans nor did I say anything insulting. It was a fake account set up in my name by irresponsible parties,” he said of a Facebook account purportedly of him insulting people from the state.

At about 10pm, the group was escorted to the Kota Kinabalu police station for the second time that day.

“We still do not know why we were arrested. We were only told we were being investigated. They took our statement, but no urine test this time,” he said.

He said there were altogether eight of them — himself, Ainullutfi, Asyraf Che Ani, Fathihie, Jamhuri, Fadhil, Nazrin and Tan Choon Nan. Fahmi is believed to be the only representative from UM, while the others were from Universiti Teknologi Mara in Sabah and UMS.

Earlier in the day, Fahmi and nine other students had been taken into police custody after delivering a speech in public at the popular weekly Gaya Street Market.

They were released from the Kota Kinabalu district police station at 3.45pm after their statements were recorded and they were subjected to a urine test.

Fahmi said his flight leaving Sabah was at 7am, and he was not sure yet when he would return.

However, he said he plans to be at Universiti Utara Malaysia on November 14, followed by Universiti Teknologi Mara Penang and Universiti Sains Malaysia on November 15.

Fahmi said his planned talk at UMS was part of a nationwide “Student Reformation” tour to raise awareness on academic freedom and university autonomy.

Fahmi gained attention when he led a group of students and defied orders to call off an event with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the main speaker on October 27.

Since then, UM, Malaysia’s oldest public university, has postponed disciplinary proceedings against Fahmi and seven other students — collectively known as the “UM8”.