KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 17 — Arms linked, mouths opened wide and with faces glistening from a mix of sweat and rain, the image of hundreds of youths storming the gates of Malaysia’s oldest university last month grabbed the nation’s attention and cast a spotlight on a spirited student activism last seen in the late 1990s.

While this new breed of firebrands, whom some have dubbed the “third wave” of student activists, show the same passion, idealism and rebelliousness, they are also less brash and more focused in what they want: a more open and free Malaysia where people of diverse ages, genders, races, socio-economic statuses and with different opinions can flourish and be respected.

These savvy men and women in their early 20s know that the only real solution lies in political reform but unlike the previous Gen-Xers, believe there are many non-partisan paths and causes that will bring about the changes they desire.

“As a student, I want to be the third force and be the check-and-balance for the government and the opposition because that’s our role. I have no intention yet to take sides,” said 22-year-old Wan Nur Syamimi Wan Sajiri, head of Sisters in Movement and the deputy chairman of the Pro Mahasiswa student group in Universiti Malaya (UM).

Wan Nur Syamimi Wan Sajiri, UM’s Pro Mahasiswa deputy chairman and the Sisters in Movement chief. — Picture by Choo Choy May

Equal rights

Muhammad Najib Abdul Rahim, 25, a student at the International Islamic University, has been at the forefront of a movement fighting for the rights of settlers of Kampung Chubadak Tambahan, one of the earliest urban Malay villages in Sentul, whose land was sold by City Hall to a private developer and is slated to be demolished to make way for a new high-rise residential project.

He told Malay Mail Online that student activists today are moved to fight based on principles of justice rather than the charisma of a political figure.

“If not us, who else can we depend on? Being a student is the best time to do this,” he said.

In the dramatic October 27 uprising in UM, its student council leaders took on the university administration to uphold their right to invite Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, an alumnus, for a talk in campus here ahead of his final stage sodomy conviction appeal at the country’s highest court.

Muhammad Najib Abdul Rahim, Coalition of Malaysian Muslim Students National Politics chairman. — Picture by Choo Choy May

Muhammad Najib said the same group of undergraduates rose up the next day to protest the demolition of a 50-year-old house in Kampung Chubadak Tambahan.

“I am confident this will continue because after October 27, we were labelled as Anwar’s supporters but they are wrong. The very next day, the same group of students did not go to Putrajaya but we went to Kampung Chubadak Tambahan after we found out the village was going to be demolished,” said the chairman of the Coalition of Malaysian Muslim Students National Politics.

Challenging the status quo

October 27 proved to be a defining moment in the current wave of student activism in the country. 

Faced with suspension or worse, expulsion for defying the UM administration’s orders in organising and proceeding with the unauthorised talk by Anwar in campus, the university’s vocal and eloquent student council president Fahmi Zainol and several other undergraduates there have chosen to hit the road on a nationwide campaign to push for an overhaul of the controversial University and University Colleges Act (UUCA) 1971.

Student council president Fahmi Zainol and several other undergraduates there have chosen to hit the road on a nationwide campaign to push for an overhaul of the controversial University and University Colleges Act 1971.

The law that regulates campus administration and student conduct was amended in 1979 that made it an offence for students to participate in political activities. 

The ban was lifted in 2012 following another revision, but student leaders interviewed by Malay Mail Online said the law still severely restricts the freedom of thought, movement and association among university students.

They noted that Anwar’s talk at UM was not the first event to draw the ire of university authorities, pointing out that talks by other prominent public figures such as decorated lawyer Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, amateur historian Fahmi Reza and law professor Azmi Sharom too have been barred from delivering in-campus talks at UM and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).

The students blame the UUCA for the current climate of fear that is fertilising unjust acts, constitutional violations and authoritarianism, pointing to the recent series of sedition arrests and prosecution that have also netted Azmi, a senior law lecturer at UM, for offering his legal opinion on the 2009 Perak constitutional crisis.

“We have a duty to our next generation and if we don’t defend academic freedom now, the next generation will suffer. We might be the last generation of students who will enjoy minimum quality tertiary education,” said Vince Tan, secretary-general of the Progressive University of Malaya student group.

Vince Tan, Progressive University of Malaya secretary-general. — Picture by Choo Choy May

The 23-year-old said he received his “political baptism of fire” when one of his best friends was suspended one whole semester by UM merely for campaigning for free education in 2012.

"This is a faculty of law and we know the law and we know our rights under the constitution, especially when our rights are being violated and the fact that we see someone close to us being persecuted, it affects us.

“That’s why we come out to make a very strong stand, saying that, ‘Look, these things cannot happen’,” the fourth-year law student at UM said.

Keeping the fire burning

UM’s Fahmi and the seven other undergraduates: Safwan Shamsuddin, Khairol Najib, Haw Yu Hong, Nur Syamimi Munirah, Adam Fistival Wilfrid, Abraham Au and Khairul Anwar, have since become the poster children of this new uprising capitalising on their youth power to bring about change. 

While awaiting their fate at the second round of questioning by the university’s student board scheduled for tomorrow, Fahmi and several other students embarked on a “Student Reformation” nationwide campus tour to raise awareness on academic freedom and university autonomy.

The charismatic young leader was in Sabah two weekends ago as part of the tour and was arrested and released twice within the span of 24 hours while in Kota Kinabalu.

The final year student of administration and social justice then continued the campaign in Universiti Utara Malaysia in Kedah last Friday and at Universiti Teknologi Mara and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in Penang the following day.

At USM, however, Fahmi and his fellow speakers were barred from holding the event inside the campus and were forced to move to a coffeeshop outside. But even there, they were disrupted by a group of hecklers who labelled them “traitors” and a disgrace to the Malays.

Despite this, the student leader and his peers at UM and other tertiary institutions elsewhere have no intention to lay down arms.

Wan Nur Syamimi, who is majoring in physics and Islamic studies, was among the students who rose up to address the UM student population on October 27.

“I felt that I needed to do something. I can’t just sit idly, and when students do this, it’s not for popularity sake but because of their awareness and understanding of the issues at hand.

“I think the people need to see justice, that’s what we need to fight for,” the UM student from Penang said.

Adrian Lim, founder of Ganyang. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

Adrian Lim, a sophomore law student from HELP University College, similarly plans to mobilise students from private institutions to join their public university counterparts and keep the torch of youth activism burning.

“It is always easier to teach the younger ones than to teach the older ones,” the 22-year-old co-founder of Ganyang, an undergraduate movement supporting the abolition of the Sedition Act.

“For example my peers, they are more receptive to new things whereas if I step into the working world as a social activist, then perhaps the audience wouldn’t be students anymore, they would be the general public, most of which have already shaped their own opinion,” he added.

UKM student leader Abdul Kahar Hamzah voiced similar sentiments, saying university students who did not put the knowledge they have acquired to practice were wasting their potential.

“If university students do not take on the role as agents of information, who else can we depend on? It would be a waste if we’ve acquired so much knowledge but are afraid to disseminate it to the public,” the 21-year-old said.