Education

Cops summon four USM students over Fahmi Reza’s democracy talk

Police questioned if satirist had influenced attendees to support any party, activist claims

Updated 1 year ago · Published on 07 Dec 2022 5:44PM

Cops summon four USM students over Fahmi Reza’s democracy talk
Alynn Sharudin (right), one of four Universiti Sains Malaysia students called up by police for attending a democracy class conducted by Fahmi Reza, says that the authorities’ move to stop his talks from university to university only exposes the hypocrisy of an educational institution that has lost its philosophical spirit. – Alynn Sharuddin Facebook pic, December 7, 2022

by Adam Ayzzat

KUALA LUMPUR – Four Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) students have been summoned by police to give their statements after attending a recent Kelas Demokrasi talk by activist and graphic designer Fahmi Reza Mohd Zarin.

Activist Wong Yan Ke, who was helping one of the students being questioned, told The Vibes that the students were asked about Fahmi and the content of his talk.

“The students were also asked whether they knew him personally, how they knew about the class, and if he influenced attendees to support any political party.”

Meanwhile, Fahmi expressed concern via his Twitter account and questioned the police why the students were being summoned after attending his talk.

“Several USM students were called by police for attending a #KelasDemokrasi I did last month. What’s the deal, PDRM?”

In reply to Fahmi’s tweet, a Twitter user known as Ikhwan Zainuddin said the students were only learning about the country’s political system.

“I was one of the four people who were called to give statements regarding Kelas Demokrasi in USM, Penang.

“It is funny to summon students who joined the class to the police station. What’s wrong with us wishing to learn about the democratic system?” 

One of the students, Alynn Sharuddin, said she was called up by police to assist in the investigation “because of a comment on Facebook”.

In a Facebook post today, she also shared a photo of her in front of the Timur Laut district police headquarters with her lawyer Darwin Lim.

“Weirdly, I was waiting for my mother to finish her minor surgery when I was called to assist in the investigation because of a comment on Facebook.

Educational institutions, she wrote, were built to provide shade for knowledge seekers to debate and build new information, and are not a factory merely to create employees. 

“Employees in the future will also be tested on their ability to solve problems, because, without it, human labour has been replaced with robots and artificial intelligence. 

“Therefore, the democracy class conducted by Fahmi Reza, from university to university, only exposes the hypocrisy of an educational institution that has lost its philosophical spirit.”

Fahmi’s Kelas Demokrasi sessions were held in a bid to provide insight into democracy, and for students to make informed decisions when voting.

However, a number of his talks were stopped, including one at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and another at Universiti Teknologi Mara in Shah Alam. – The Vibes, December 7, 2022

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