Fifteen students from two public universities will be hauled up for disciplinary hearings over a May 13 forum they organised on the GST and a rally they attended on May 27  to protest a water shortage.

In the first case, University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) has initiated a disciplinary hearing against 13 students for staging a protest over a water shortage on campus.

Muhammad Sallehudin Khalid, president of UKM Students' Association (PMUKM) was among the 13 to be called in for the hearing on June 29.

In the second case, Hanif Mahpa, Universiti Islam Antarabangsa's  (UIA) Students' Representative Council president and exco member Afiqah Zulkifli were summoned by their university authorities to attend a disciplinary hearing on July 7.

They were alleged to be behind a GST forum which was attended by PKR Pandan parliamentarian Rafizi Ramli and former Umno youth exco member Lokman Adam.

The forum, however, turned into a scuffle when campus security personnel snatched the microphone from Rafizi after which Hanif was forced to call off the event.

Student group Mahasiswa Keadilan Malaysia condemned UKM for moving against the 13 students for merely voicing their dissatisfaction over the campus' water problems.

"As student leaders, they rallied to demand that the water problems be solved promptly," said MKM, adding they were acting for the welfare of their fellow students.

"UKM's management should instead feel proud that they have these courageous students," added MKM in their statement.

UM's Student Association (PMUM), meanwhile, if there was any necessity to initiate disciplinary actions in the first place.

"The students gathered to seek freedom in academia and for it to be reinstated in local universities.

“We do not want to become academic zombies, the production of universities," said Mohamad Ammar Atan, president of PMUM.

'Nonsensical charges'

He said the two cases showed that university students' freedom of speech were being stifled for political reasons.

Last December, Universiti Malaya suspended two of its students for organising a gathering on campus on Oct 27 featuring then opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, without the university's permission.

In another statement, the We Unite For Islam (Wufi) student group said the accusation against the two UIA students was 'nonsensical'.

"We will never agree to these nonsensical charges and the intervention of outsiders.

“The UIA management will have to face the consequences for this effort to turn the students into idiots," warned Azzan Aznan Bin Abdul Rahim, president of Wufi.

"Wufi calls on UIA students and all students in the country to join the struggle to reinstate our rights as the biggest stakeholders in universities nationwide," he said.

He added that UIA students could gather at the office of the university's legal adviser to show their support for the two student leaders.