The Occupy UM movement on the Universiti Malaya campus was broken up by officers from both the Royal Malaysian Police and Kuala Lumpur City Hall yesterday.
At 3 pm, about 30 officers arrived on the campus grounds in two police trucks and a DBKL truck, tasked with clearing the area of the protesting students and their makeshift tents.
Occupy UM began as a response to UM management’s decision to punish elected student representatives who had organised a talk on October 27 which featured Federal Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim as its key speaker.
The talk was disallowed, resulting in a day-long blockade of the universiti entrances by security staff. After students and Anwar supporters gathered outside the Bangsar gate into UM, and forced their way in, the talk took place anyway, albeit on the street in front of the Dewan Tunku Canselor, instead of inside it.
Five of the UM student reps were fined RM150 each, while two others were sentenced to heavier penalties: former UM student union leader Fahmi Zainol was given a two-month suspension and a fine of RM600, and UM Pro-Mahasiswa president Safwan Shamsuddin received a month-long suspension and a fine of RM300.
The Malaysian Insider reports that Brickfields district police chief ACP Muhammad Azlee Abdullah said it was illegal for anyone to set up tents without DBKL’s permission, and that it was an offence that could lead to summonses being issued to the Occupy UM activists.
“The students put up tents in the open space near the UM gate. City Hall has instructed them to pull down the tents and disperse.”
The UM students complied with the order, but planned to set up their tents again later last night.
PKR secretary-general and vice president Rafizi Ramli announced that he would join the Occupy UM protesters in their camps, and urged other Pakatan Rakyat politicians to do the same.
