KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 28 — The government is now willing to listen to tertiary education students and get the opinion of other stakeholders on whether it should repeal the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 (UUCA), Parliament was told today.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said all talks on policy and the law have to go through the proper process for review.
“At our level, in relation to existing policy and legislation [we have to] take many things into account.
“We will take what was proposed through the usual process, and get input from all stakeholders whether it needs to be reviewed, repealed or improved depending on what is being determined from the engagement,” he said during the Prime Minister’s Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat.
Fadillah was standing in for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim during the morning session.
Indera Mahkota MP Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah from the Opposition Perikatan Nasional had asked if the government had any plans to repeal the UUCA.
The Anwar administration came under friendly fire from Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman two days ago after the Higher Education Ministry said in a written parliamentary reply last week that it had no plans to repeal the law, and was only looking into more leeway for students to take part in political activities.
Syed Saddiq who was a former youth and sports minister reminded the government that the UUCA abolition had been an election promise by the Pakatan Harapan coalition, which Anwar leads, since 2018.
Then education minister Maszlee Malik and later on then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had promised to look into ways to repeal the Act before the collapse of the PH government in early 2020.
The UUCA has been amended seven times since it was gazetted in 1971. The last amendment was in 2019.
