Repealing the Auku: What it means for Malaysian higher education

IN December 1974, amid the student demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur that followed the Baling protests (against poverty in Kedah), a young Universiti Malaya graduate named Anwar Ibrahim was detained without trial under the Internal Security Act.

The following year, Parliament expanded the machinery of control over student association, expression and discipline contained in the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 (Auku, from Akta Universiti dan Kolej Universiti 1971).