Prof Azmi Sharom (left) speaks to UKM students gathered at a dimly-lit carpark of a KTM Komuter station after the university denied him entry into the university in Bangi, October 1, 2014. — Picture by Choo Choy May

BANGI, Oct 2 — A Universiti Malaya (UM) law lecturer denied entry into Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s (UKM) campus here last night despite being invited as the guest-of-honour to the launch of a campaign to repeal the Sedition Act has advised the students to choose the battles they wish to fight.

The anti-sedition law campaign in UKM, organised as a dinner talk by a number of its student societies that had banded together as the Gabungan Mahasiswa UKM, was scheduled to kick off at 8.30pm, but the affair went south from the get-go after the university’s student affairs unit refused them permission to use the campus hall.

The student movement then moved the event off-campus, to a dimly-lit carpark of the KTM Komuter station nearby. But they were intercepted by the police about 10pm, who however, allowed UM’s associate professor Azmi Sharom, to say a few words.

Under the close watch of several policemen, the academic told the group of students that numbered about 50 to seek out various ideas and views.

“The whole point to university education is to get as much different ideas as possible be it controversial or propaganda,” said Azmi, who was last month charged with sedition for a legal opinion he gave concerning the 2009 Perak constitutional crisis.

The police on standby cut into Azmi’s speech halfway, ordering the crowd to disperse and reminding them that they needed prior permission to assemble in a public area under the law.

A police officer on standby told Malay Mail Online that it was an offence for more than three people to gather in a public space without prior approval from the authorities.

“They can’t be doing this. This is against the law and they still rely on their parents to fund their education... it is best they disperse,” said the policeman who gave his name only as Malik.

Azmi bowed to the police orders and advised the students to leave, telling them in a parting shot to “choose your battles”.

Gabungan Mahasiswa UKM’s strategist Lee Jun Keong said he hoped the incident would help raise awareness for the movement’s efforts to end the controversial Sedition Act 1948, and pledged to up the ante on their campaign.

“Please spread the word through social media, do what it takes to make our voices heard,” said Lee, a third-year law student.

The UKM sedition law repeal campaign is the latest effort in the footsteps of a similar lobby by the Malaysian Bar, the #MansuhAktaHasutan (Repeal Sedition Act) started last month that has netted two law professors, a number of Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers, civil activists and a journalist.

Critic have accused Putrajaya of abusing the 1948 law to crack down on government dissenters.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has promised to do away with the repressive Act three times in the span of two years, and replace it with a National Harmony Act with the most recent occasion on September 5.

But with growing pressure from conservatives within his own party, Umno, Najib said recently that the government may not repeal the Sedition Act after all, if replacement laws were inferior.

Defenders of the Sedition Act, primarily pro-establishment conservatives including former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, contend that its removal will open the floodgates of attacks against the Bumiputera, Islam, and the Malay rulers in the absence of another pre-independence law that has since been repealed, the Internal Security Act.