Students protest Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s meet-and-greet session in front of Restoran Amjal near Universiti Malaya in Kuala Lumpur March 22, 2019. — Picture by Shafwan Zaidon

KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 — The vice-chancellor of Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) came out today to emphatically support the Universiti Malaya students assaulted by Umno supporters while protesting against Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Taking up the challenge Education Minister Maszlee Malik laid down yesterday, Prof Dr Mohd Azraai Kassim said his university wholly rejected attempts to silence students’ freedom of expression, particularly through the use of physical violence.

“Violence is not only beyond social norms and democracy, but it is also against the values of the Malay-Muslim community that is rich in civility and manners, not to mention violating the country’s laws.

“For UiTM, violence is never the way to resolve differences of opinions or ideology, and has no place on any of our campuses,” he said in a statement today.

Students and academics’ freedom to broach current issues was a key aspect of the learning process and must be allowed so long as they are within the law, he added.

Azraai said UiTM firmly rejected such violence, urging the authorities to fully investigate and take the appropriate action against those involved in the attack on the students.

Students protest Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s meet-and-greet session in front of Restoran Amjal near Universiti Malaya in Kuala Lumpur March 22, 2019. — Picture by Shafwan Zaidon

This morning, the UMANY coalition of student groups pressed the vice-chancellor of Universiti Malaya to clarify his statement on the Friday attack.

They said the VC’s remarks critical of lawlessness and provocation implied that the students who were attacked by Najib’s supporters had acted unlawfully or were unreasonably provocative.

Citing Maszlee’s remarks telling university administrations to come out strongly and clearly against the assault, UMANY said the vice-chancellor’s response to the incident appeared to blame the victims instead.

Yesterday, Maszlee said all public university administrators should have condemned the attack against the students, criticising those that responded vaguely to the incident.

On Friday, a group including Umno supreme council member Datuk Lokman Noor Adam confronted around seven tertiary students protesting against Najib near the university grounds.

The students held up placards and an image of Najib dressed as a clown. When the students refused to put away the items, the Najib supporters became physically aggressive.

The confrontation was recorded and the clip subsequently shared online.