Pergerakan Tenaga Akademik Malaysia (GERAK) strongly condemns the attack by Najib Razak’s supporters on six Universiti Malaya (UM) students on Friday, 22 March 2019.
Unedited video images of the attack clearly show the students peacefully exercising their constitutional rights to assembly and the expression of their views on the former premier. Then, a bunch of Najib’s supporters shamelessly set upon them and assaulted them.
In the process, and in typical racist hooligan’s style, Najib’s supporters played the racial card by spinning the UM’s students criticism of their boss as “menghina orang Melayu”. This we condemn as outright stupid, cowardly and racist.
The students were clearly and only criticizing Najib. By no stretch of any normal person’s imagination could this be construed as “insulting the Malays”. They were expressing their disapproval of a man who himself could be construed as having insulted his race, religion and country.
GERAK demands a stop to this thuggery and racially-charged actions. We call upon the authorities to NOT detain and further harass the innocent party, the students. Instead, swift action must be taken against the REAL wrongdoers – those who manhandled and verbally abused the UM students.
We also call upon Minister of Education, Dr. Maszlee Malik, and the entire academic fraternity to show solidarity with the six UM students. We should not allow any form of thuggery and racism to undermine our academic freedom and constitutional rights.
GERAK EXCO
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