Universities commended for agreeing to allow Suhakam to monitor campus elections to ensure they are free, fair and clean – Parliamentary Human Rights Caucus and IIM  should send observers as well
________________________

Media Comment
by Lim Kit Siang  
________________________________

(Parliament, Wednesday): Malaysiakini reported today that the majority of the 17 public universities have agreed to allow the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) to monitor the campus elections this year, following previous allegations of scare tactics, irregularities and money politics during the annual exercise.  This was disclosed by the Suhakam Commissioner Prof. Hamdan Adnan.

The majority of the universities which have agreed to a monitoring team from Suhakam to ensure that the campus student elections to be held at the end of this month or early next month are free, fair and clean are to be commended, and the rest of the universities which have still to give their agreement should follow suit to mark the return of a more open, democratic and critical academic environment for both students and lecturers – a prerequisite if Malaysian universities are to become centers of excellence and achievement.

Long-term national interests demand the immediate end of past practices  which turned campus elections into training grounds for political corruption and electoral abuses in the larger national environment whether political parties or national and state elections.  Instead, campus elections should be the nurseries for clean elections, character-building and integrity to lay the basis for a new culture of zero-tolerance for corruption in Malaysia, culminating in Malaysia taking her place as among the world’s ten least corrupt nations.

I call on the Minister for Higher Education, Datuk Dr. Shafie Salleh to publicly endorse and support the holding of free, fair and clean campus students elections and the invitation of Malaysian stakeholders as observers to monitor the student polls.  Shafie should rise to the occasion to demonstrate that he is aware of the importance of being a Higher Education Minister for the nation and future generations and not just for the ruling coalition.

Apart from Suhakam, the Parliamentary Human Rights Caucus and the Malaysian  Institute  of Integrity should send observers to monitor the campus student polls as well.

(07/09/2005)