University Putra Malaysia security personnel allegedly broke into a student’s room and illegally confiscated a laptop computer and other electrical items and documents. [Malaysiakini]

Friday night, 4 staff members of the student affairs department (HEP) in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, raided the room of Yee Yang Yang, a first-year student in Hostel 13 who is a member of a pro-student grouping.

He was interrogated from 11pm to 1am, and his laptop, handphone, MP4 player, 2 pendrives, leaflets and personal documents were confiscated. [Jeff Ooi]

It may seem as a daylight robbery for some people, but the irony part is that our Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 does allow some sort of action for universities officials to act (in a university compound) beyond what police officers could do in public.

The act itself is stupid in a lot of ways, and it becomes increasingly ridiculous when it is abused by university personnel.

Yee was told that the items would be returned last Saturday, this did not happen - and a 75-minute meeting with unit director Mej Othman Jailani today did not produce results either.

“They (security officials) wanted me to give them the password for my phone and laptop so that they could check the contents,” he told reporters outside the campus security’s office this afternoon (Sep 17).

“I refused. I want them to return my things and to apologise to me publicly because they did not follow proper procedures when they took away my belongings.

“Not only were they not in uniform, but they were also rude when I asked questions.”

Yee’s effort on Saturday was recorded in a nine-minute video by one of his friends.

It included a tense stand-off between the students and Zamali Samsi, the head of the university’s Special Task Unit, a student-monitoring outfit which is part of the campus security.

The students stood in front and the back of the vehicle carrying Zamali to stop him from leaving until they got their letter of acknowledgement [see video].

Yee also said two attempts to lodge a police report against the security unit had failed on Saturday because Sri Serdang police personnel had contacted the security personnel and were told that he would get back his belongings.

As at the time of writing, about 7pm, Yee was at the police station to make another attempt at lodging the report.

If the police cannot do anything about his predicament, Yee intends to serve the university a legal notice. [Malaysiakini]

Update Sep 29 - UPM has finally returned the belongings of Yee [Malaysiakini]


The video…


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9 Responses to “Power abuse in UPM”

  1. Anonymous on September 18th, 2007 at 5:28pm

    Pekara yang terjadi sangat memalukan, pegawai telah diberi kuasa tetapi menyalahgunakan nya. Mengapa barang pelajar dirampas!!! perangai yang pegawai keselamatan UPM macam lanun.

  2. Samuel Goh Kim Eng on September 18th, 2007 at 6:21pm

    It’s indeed sad for any institution of higher learning
    To be so aggressive with such approach that’s demeaning
    To anyone who’s rational there’s simply no clear meaning
    For such drastic actions taken to be actually forth coming

    Tue. 18th Sept. 2007

  3. Pemerhati Bebas on September 18th, 2007 at 9:27pm

    Perkara yang amat memalukan.Sikap yang di tunjuk oleh pegawai berkenanan jelas menunjukan kualiti kakitangan yang amat mencurigakan. Nampak lebih kepada tabiat samseng. Perkara ini ialah dengan jelasnya ialah tindakan mencuri!!
    Yang sedihnya pihak polis yang tiba pun tidak menunjukan sikap yang betul. Yang salah tetap salah!
    Mengapakah pula tiada ada mana mana pihak pengurusan UPM muncul walaupun insiden in berlaku sekian lama.VC mesti mengaku kesilapan dan memohon maaf. Kakitangan yang melanggar undang undang mesti dikenakan tindakan( Sedangkan pihak polis sendiri diperlukan mengeluarkan resit untuk barang diterimanya.)
    Satu lagi perhatian yang boleh saya buat ialah mengapakah tidak ada pelajar lain yang keluar untuk memberi sokongan.Amat menyedihkan untuk negara !
    Saya memuji sikap berani yang ditunjukkan oleh murid-murid dalam insiden itu walaupun mereka masih muda!!!

  4. Anonymous on September 18th, 2007 at 10:45pm

    Wawasan 2020 boleh ke Malaysia?
    Put that robber in jail to show us you can do it.

  5. maatlockk on September 19th, 2007 at 1:37am

    seriously. SERIOUSLY. the did that?

    poplit’s embarassing to have this kinda idiotic behaviour. and at a university. SERIOUSLY. this is unacceptable.
    and there’s that gang mentality where the guards are all sticking up for each other.

    a-holes~! they should get fired.

    he even threatened to throw the camera-person’s camera onto the ground! unprofessional conduct!

    oh my GOD. malu aku tengok.

  6. Malaysian Boy on September 19th, 2007 at 7:04am

    Seriously Malaysia is a place to make your money then you leave. I studied at local university before more than 15 years ago the staff of the university treated us like shit. Also the civil service in Malaysia most of them treated the public like shit as if we owe them something.

    My advice is make your money then migrate to other countries. This country doesn’t like you but you will be welcomed by other countries with open arms if you have money and good job experiences and also highly skilled.

    This is a globalized world for talents. Other countries will appreciate you more.

    In Malaysia most of the civil servants act as if they are the barbaric king. The rule of law applies to the weaks only. For the people who have connections most are above the law. This is the mentality for the past few hundred years since the Malacca sultanate what do you expect.

  7. ffad on September 22nd, 2007 at 2:37pm

    To Malaysian boy,

    Yes is time to go. But many chinese cant do that because they are just sohais. Just look at the majority chinese teenagers, skinny like drug addicts…like got no rice to eat.

    How experiance and highly skilled are you talking about? I dont think malaysian chinese is that skilled when comes to global competition except for few. All the while we compete with locals only, thats all, and all the while we thought that we are skilled. Excuse me, no we are not (for the chinese majority).

  8. ffad on September 22nd, 2007 at 2:53pm

    How can malaysian chinese compete with malaysian malays? Assuming 100 mil revenue comes into malaysia from aboard (revenue), the government will of course “gives” at least 80% to bumiputra and “give” the rest to others. Others will bite (compete) each other for the 20%. So in the long run, cina sohais and tau_yuns will lose out. Rich sohais and rich yuns no problem, how bout poor ah beng and ah lian? how bout poor keling mui and keling chai?

    So lets all poor chineses and indians work harder, save more and plan for future generation without malaysia, since they dont like us. If cannot dont complain, you know the rules.

  9. Oops… UPM did it again | Malaysia Buzz | YeinJee on November 19th, 2007 at 7:24pm

    [...] 1st time UPM is involved with similar confrontation; another student had his laptop confiscated in September but his issue is settled sooner with the involvement of some opposition [...]


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