It’s disappointing to note that the police has not learnt from precedence and are still jittery as always. Tuesday's cake party organised by the ‘1M Malaysians Reject 100-storey Mega Tower’ Facebook group could have passed without incident, but that was not to be as the police fell back to their uncontrollable urge to overreact.

Such overreaction was also not spared for the cake party held in Kampar McDonald's, where around 14 policemen turned up only to stand on the sidelines while seeking shelter from the drizzle. Only six person turned up, doing the most mundane of things - eating cake.

But what is equally disappointing is that UTAR played to the tune of the police, jumping onto the overreaction bandwagon. Judging by the fact that the university was aware that there were going to be police presence at the party, it’s safe to assume that the police had contacted the university in advance.

However as an academic institution, one would expect the university to react in a wiser matter. The event specification on Facebook clearly stated that it was nothing more than cake.

And if the authorities had bothered to actually read the initially write up that called for the party on the Facebook group, they would have been aware that there were specific instructions on the ‘don'ts’ so that the event would not resemble a protest assembly. No banners, no placards, no slogans. Period.        

While I'm disappointed that the university has hit the panic button before it did sufficient research, I'm equally sad that the university's vice president The Chee Seng has earned the scorn of Malaysiakini's commentators.

The, who had posted a caution on his Facebook against participating in the event was interpreted as a stern warning and a form of student intimidation. Perhaps it may appear so to outsiders, however as a student who has seen the newly appointed vice president for Kampar at work, it does give us the larger picture.

The is one of the few and exceptional members of the UTAR management staff who treats the students as equals. He is perhaps the only person I know that actively engages students on Facebook and would willingly give out his contact number to students, being very reactive towards any feedback.

Even when the cake party was in progress, the vice president had sent an SMS to ask if all was well.

To be honest, UTAR students love to complain, and they would not miss a chance to take pot shots at the university, not that they are sometimes unjustified, however the reaction among students in this incident have been very different.    

Our concern is that following Tuesday's incident in which his message on Facebook was widely publicised, it would make the vice president more cautious and we the students risk to lose an important platform and avenue to express our grouses.

As a student who has seen the vice president at work, I was in no way intimidated by the message and my fellow UTARians share the same sentiments. What I see is that Tuesday's fiasco was a mismanagement on the part of the university who had been too quick to jump the gun. Perhaps the police are still adamant about being jittery, but I do hope that the university learns something out of this.

Albeit this incident, we the students do hope that the vice president will not be deterred and will carry on his good work.