Education Minister Musa Mohamed today said he has confidence in the actions taken by Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) authorities to curb "underground activities" on campus.

He was asked to comment on the recent midnight raids conducted in UPM, which saw the student council representative's office and several women undergraduates' rooms being raided and searched.

"It is up to the university to do whatever it feels appropriate to curb any untoward incident. We have full confidence in what the university is doing," he told reporters at his office after chairing the post-cabinet meeting.

"But of course the authorities must also be aware that they should not go beyond the proper procedures (in taking action)."

Campus elections 'clean'

The minister - who claimed to be unaware of the incidents - said he would not order an investigation into the raids based merely on "hearsay".

"(There is) no reason for us to investigate, there is nothing we consider (to be) wrong. And unless the students lodge a complaint with the ministry to say they were mishandled, we cannot investigate (based just) on hearsay," Musa said.

He declined to comment as to whether the incident was tantamount to invasion of privacy or if it was an attempt to crack down on dissident voices ahead of the annual elections in all campuses scheduled for next Thursday.

"Campus elections are clean enough," he said of the annual process which is held simultaneously over a day in all universities. The elections are for office-bearers of the student council.

Campus elections, often tainted by partisan politics, are usually perceived as a fight between 'pro-establishment' and 'anti-establishment' candidates.

The pro-establishment group is allegedly sponsored by the undergraduates affairs department of the respective universities and backed by the ruling government while the anti-establishment group is critical of campus affairs.

In the first raid in UPM two weeks ago, four women undergraduates had their rooms searched and they were interrogated in the middle of the night for allegedly planning "underground activities".

They are all members of the Muslim Undergraduates Association (PMI) which is alleged to be linked to PAS.

Following this, the UPM student council office was raided last Saturday and about 2,000 copies of its bulletin were seized. The council is dominated by the 'anti-establishment' faction which had won a two-thirds majority in the last elections.

The same night, a student representative's room was raided and she was said to have been threatened when she requested for a written authorisation.

'No comment'

Meanwhile, malaysiakini learnt that UPM carried out a third round of raids late last night, in rooms occupied by one male and one female student respectively. Both are PMI members.

Despite numerous attempts since last Friday, UPM undergraduate affairs department deputy vice-chancellor Prof Dr Abdullah Al-Hadi Mohamed (left) and other officials have declined to comment on the matter.

Contacted again today, Abdullah's personal assistant Azizah Abdul Wahab said the deputy vice-chancellor had conveyed to her that there is "no need" to respond to malaysiakini's requests to clarify the incidents.

DAP Socialist Youth (Dapsy) and the Malaysia Youth and Students Democratic Movement have criticised the raids and called on the minister to initiate disciplinary action against university officials who have misused their powers.

Dapsy national secretary Loke Siew Fook also said a complaint would be lodged next Tuesday with the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam).