Drop action against 6 who complained about campus Internet, PKR tells UM

The Universiti Malaya administration should pay attention to the daily issues faced by its students and not punish activism, PKR says today over claims that disciplinary proceedings have started against six students who complained about Internet quotas on the campus. The party's vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar, calling the action oppressive, said this showed that the university management viewed the students as robots. The truth was that the six faced the same problems like other Malaysians, given the slow Internet speed which did not commensurate with the high charges imposed, she said. She said when tabling the Budget 2016, Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced an allocation of RM1.2 billion under the Communications and Multimedia Commission to improve telecommunications infrastructure in the country. But he, however, failed to announce the cut in allocation to public universities, where UM's budget was slashed by 27.3% or RM175 million. "I am puzzled as to how the prime minister could announce infrastructure upgrade and at the same time allow public universities to limit WiFi access on campus," Nurul Izzah said in a statement today. The Lembah Pantai lawmaker said because of this, university students have no choice but to pay additional charges for faster Internet. She urged the government to keep its promises to students by not only halting any increase in university fees, but also to disallow these institutions from imposing higher charges as and when they liked. "It is the right of university students to have reasonable Internet access. "It's better for UM to drop their disciplinary charges against the six and instead have a dialogue with them." On December 14, two student groups, Umany and PMIUM, told a press conference that UM would limit Internet access campus to 5GB from March, compared with the current unlimited quota, following the reduction in allocation to institutions of higher learning announced in Budget 2016. The students allegedly breached university regulations by holding a press conference without prior approval. In response to their complaints about Internet access, UM vice-chancellor Professor Datuk Dr Mohd Amin Jalaludin said the students would not be charged for extra usage and any decision on the matter would be made after meeting student representatives. The six are to appear for disciplinary proceedings on February 15. – February 11, 2016.  ]]>