Undergrads compiling evidence on Pekan attacks
The university students who said they were attacked while distributing letters in the prime minister’s constituency of Pekan last week are compiling recordings of the incidents in a bid to identify the attackers.
The university students who said they were attacked while distributing letters in the prime minister’s constituency of Pekan last week are compiling recordings of the incidents in a bid to identify the attackers.
Undergraduates Movement for GE-13 (GM13) chairperson Syis Abdul Kadir said the group would lodge a police report and hand over the video and image recordings for further action.
Syis, who is also president of University Malaya (UM) Muslim Undergraduates Association, said he expects the evidence-gathering exercise to be completed within the week.
He said the series of recent attacks have not shaken the group’s resolve to take on Najib Abdul Razak in Pekan and that they would carry on with the second phase of their campaign there, which is still being discussed.
“All the threats and obstructions we encountered in Pekan recently strengthen our argument that Datuk Seri (Najib) is not a successful leader to continue to govern Malaysia,” Syis told a press conference at UM today.
Also today, members of the group were unsuccessful in their bid to deliver a letter to Najib after the prime minister cancelled his plan to attend the One Malaysia Graduates function at Dewan Tunku Canselor in the UM campus.
The letter, titled ‘Students invitation to meet one-on-one at Pekan parliamentary constituency’, is intended to pressure Najib to take responsibility for the attacks the undergraduates faced in Pekan.
'Should have been safest place to visit'
It also expresses regret that such a thing can have befallen the students in the prime minister’s own constituency.
Pekan, Syis said, should have been the safest place to visit, as well as the most democratic and matured.
Undeterred, the group will deliver the letter to the PM’s office in Putrajaya by early next week.
On Feb 12, a student (left) claimed he was punched and slapped while another group was allegedly threatened with a machete the next day.
These were followed by yet another attack last Friday, in which two female student activists accused Umno members of pulling their tudung (headscarf) and setting the copies of the ‘Students letter to Pekan residents’ that they carried ablaze.
The attacks forced the students to abandon Pekan two days earlier than intended, for fear of their safety.
