Protester wants UM to retract police report
PETALING JAYA: Student protester Wong Yan Ke wants Universiti Malaya to retract the police report lodged against him as a “sign of sincerity”.
“If the university’s (board of directors) wants to uphold freedom of expression, why don’t they demonstrate their sincerity by taking action instead of just speaking?
“They should show their sincerity by retracting the police report lodged against me.
“The retraction of the police report will also demonstrate the university’s willingness to respect the rights of everyone at the university to freedom of speech,” Wong was quoted as saying in a press conference after receiving his degree certificate yesterday.
Another student Edan Kon Hua En, who had earlier claimed that he was barred from receiving his scroll after auxiliary police found a folded placard in his possession, also received his certificate.
UM had denied allegations that it withheld the scroll of a graduate who staged a solo protest against its vice-chancellor.
UM Board Of Directors chairman Tengku Datuk Dr Mohd Azzman Shariffadeen Tengku Ibrahim said the board did not prevent Wong, an engineering graduate, from collecting his scroll and transcript nor are they withholding it.
“The graduate has been informed that he can collect his academic transcript at any time starting Oct 18,” he said in a statement yesterday.
“As the most prestigious university in the country, UM continues to uphold its intellectual integrity and academic freedom and will always be neutral, impartial and it will give priority to the national interest.”
He also said all graduates can access their scrolls online and print them from Oct 21 onwards.
Wong, 23, had staged a solo protest at UM’s 59th convocation ceremony on Monday against vice-chancellor Datuk Abdul Rahim Hashim.