In a joint statement, seven university-based groups have expressed their distress by the expression of support by 222 PhD holders of the state of emergency issued by the Perikatan Nasional government.

Persatuan Kakitangan Akademik Universiti Malaya (PKAUM), Universiti Malaya Students’ Union (KMUM), Demokrat Universiti Malaya, Gerakan Pembebasan Akademik (GPA), Harmoni Malaysia, Angkatan Mahasiswa UM and University of Malaya Association of New Youth (Umany) said the academics' support smacked of elitism with them seemingly intimating their intellectual superiority over other Malaysians on the basis of possessing a PhD qualification.