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?”
Mahasiswa USM kena panggil polis kerana menghadiri #KelasDemokrasi yang aku buat di Penang bulan lalu. Apa cerita @PDRMsia? pic.twitter.com/PUbVuaLgoT
— Fahmi Reza (@kuasasiswa) December 7, 2022
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?”
Aku salah seorang 4 orang yang dipanggil untuk beri keterangan kepada pihak polis pasal Kelas Demokrasi yang berlaku di USM, Pulau Pinang.
— Ikhwan Zainuddin ? (@ikweyy) December 7, 2022
Agak kelakar kenapa nak panggil student yang join Kelas Demokrasi ke balai polis. Apa salah kami yang ingin tahu pasal sistem demokrasi? https://t.co/HM4QZcm2Fy
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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