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Videoclip of UPM rowdyism by student leaders and students emailed to Mustapha asking him not to condone the indefensible with his continued silence and refusal to condemn student mob rule

 

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Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Parliament
, Saturday) I have emailed to the Minister for Higher Education, Datuk Mustapha Mohamad the videoclip of Monday�s  disgraceful rowdyism by Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) student leaders and students threatening, shoving  and manhandling seven members of the Student Progressive Front (SPF) urging him not to condone the indefensible with his continued silence and refusal to condemn student indiscipline and mob rule.

 

Would Mustapha  have continued to keep quiet on the incident after six  days if the guilty party in the �mob rule� had been the SPF while the victims the UPM students leaders led by UPM�s student representative council president Abdul Manaf Ariffin?

 

If the answer is in the negative, then the next question is why Mustapha is practicing double standards on campus indiscipline and student mob rule depending who are the guilty parties?

 

Over the tendentious and divisive UPM Ethnic Relations guidebook, which aggravates racial polarization rather foster ethnic relations, Mustapha made the fatal misjudgment of defending the indefensible in trying to justify as �historic facts� what  were historic lies.

 

He should not make  two fatal errors of judgment and  Ministerial leadership within one week, this time by condoning the indefensible through his conspicuous silence in refusing to condemn the UPM student indiscipline and mob rule which had been captured in a videoclip circulating on the web.

 

Mustapha should realize that just as  the UPM Ethnic Relations guidebook debacle raised fundamental questions about his Ministerial leadership qualities, the UPM student rowdyism is heading in the same direction with his continued silence.

 

Although Mustapha has said that he had given the UPM Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Nik Mustapha R. Abdullah authority to deal with the incident, the question is why Mustapha is so shy in condemning student indiscipline and mob rule as to tantamount to a condonation?

 

Mustapha�s continued and conspicuous silence has been compounded by the farce staged by the UPM Vice Chancellor yesterday purportedly resolving Monday�s incident with a photo session of Malay and Chinese UPM students shaking hands to demonstrate �evidence and reality of racial integration� in UPM � when the seven SPF student victims of the incident were kept in the dark and excluded from the event!

 

The flip-flop by Nik Mustapha by first  describing Monday�s UPM incident as a racial issue and subsequent denying that it was an ethnic problem does not reflect well on the leadership caliber and qualities of the UPM Vice Chancellor.

 

Nik Mustapha�s claim that the faces in the videoclip were not clear is most preposterous and proof that the UPM Vice Chancellor is totally unfit and incompetent to do what is right in conducting a full and fair investigation to root out the gangster culture on the campus.

 

I have viewed the videoclip again and there is no doubt that every face could be identified.

 

Mustapha should take heed of the frustration expressed by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi that ministers are leaving all government decisions to him and that ministers who shirk their responsibilities should not be ministers.

 

Mustapha had shirked and failed in his Ministerial responsibility on the UPM Ethnic Relations guidebook debacle. Is he going to shirk and fail in his Ministerial responsibility a second time within a week, and the UPM student rowdyism issue has to be taken up in the Cabinet meeting next week again for Abdullah to resolve?

 

Speak up Mustapha to condemn student indiscipline,  rowdyism and  mob rule. Announce an independent  inquiry into the disgraceful UPM incident on Monday as the UPM Vice Chancellor and his deputies have proved to be unfit and incompetent to handle the issue after yesterday�s fiasco � or the issue must be referred to the Cabinet for the right and proper action to be taken.

 

(22/07/2006)     
                                                      


*  Lim Kit Siang, Parliamentary Opposition Leader, MP for Ipoh Timur & DAP Central Policy and Strategic Planning Commission Chairman

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