He said the police had so far interviewed 33 people, including students, university staff and lecturers.
The Fire and Rescue Department had cited a short circuit
as the probable cause of the fire, and it recommended that government
departments and agencies should conduct fire safety checks on their buildings
at least once a year.
The police should stop all investigations into the Dewan Tunku Chanselor
fire after the Fire and Rescue Department report pinpointing faulty wiring
as probable cause.
Is the police investigating the DTC fire trying to zero in on the university personnel for their failure to conduct regular fire safety checks of DTC or is the police seeking to disprove the Fire and Rescue Department finding that the probable cause of the DTC fire was a short circuit and not arson by “militant” student activists, as first alleged by various UMNO Ministers and leaders?
As the Fire and Rescue Department report that the probable cause of the DTC fire was a short circuit had been presented to the Cabinet, the question arises as what purpose is being served with the continued police investigations - unless the police has reasons to believe that the “short circuit” cause of the fire was planned by so-called “militant” anti-government student activists!
The government should come to its senses and allow sanity to return to the campuses and not to regard every student critic of the Barisan Nasional government as a traitor of the country - but to concede that such criticisms stem from the highest form of idealism and love for the country and should be fully respected and given space for expression.
For a start, all the “trigger-happy” UMNO Ministers and politicians including Umno Youth chief and Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Hishammuddin Tun Hussein and the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Dr. Rais Yatim should publicly apologise for their baseless aspersions on “militant” student activists for the DTC fire.
Secondly, the two students activists, Muhamad Fuad Mohd Ikhwan, President of Majlis Perwakilan Mahasiswa Universiti Malaya (MPMUM) and Khairul Anuar Ahmad Zainuddin who were detained under the Internal Security Act after the DTC fire should be released immediately and unconditionally.
Although the police had not publicly linked Muhamad Fuad and Khairul Anuar with the DTC fire, their ISA arrests took place in an atmosphere that there should be a crackdown against student activists for turning the campuses into hot-beds of militant anti-government activities like the DTC fire - a preposterous allegation which has now been proved to be completely baseles and unfounded.
(13/7/2001)