AYER KEROH: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will not permit the tabling of any laws to replace the soon to be abolished the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 (AUKU) meant to restrict student freedom.
“AUKU must be abolished completely. There is a concern that AUKU could be abolished only for a new law to be introduced that is equally restrictive and oppressive. I will not allow any regulation or law to restrict students in that way,” he said during his speech at the PKR national congress here on Sunday (Aug 16).
"Students are ordinary citizens. There are criminal laws, and laws that apply to everyone. If a student assaults someone, causes injury, or cheats in an examination, then the existing laws apply.
"I am not suggesting that we should relax those laws. But as for a special law governing students, such as AUKU, I reiterate that I will raise this at the Cabinet meeting this Wednesday: I do not agree to any amendment or replacement Act that restricts or curbs the rights and freedoms of our students,” he added.
Anwar recalled that the law was first introduced to restrict him when he was a student activist.
“I actually look back at when the first provision, the initial law concerning restrictions on students, was introduced around 1974. At the time, the then prime minister and education minister introduced this law to restrict students’ freedom because the student leader who was active at the time was Anwar Ibrahim. So, the history of AUKU is quite interesting. The law was introduced to curb Anwar’s freedom,” he said.
Anwar said he had also proposed several amendments to the law when he was deputy prime minister.
After Anwar announced on Saturday that AUKU will be abolished, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir said that a more comprehensive framework has been identified to replace the law.
Zambry said Auku was not merely an Act regulating student affairs or freedoms, adding that the ministry had already considered renewing the country’s higher education legislative framework by drafting a new Act to replace AUKU.
