The Universities and University Colleges Act (AUKU) came into force in 1971, but it did not immediately suppress student activism. The Act received pushback from politicians, international student bodies, and students themselves.
In 1974, students would fight for social issues like protesting the eviction of squatters in Johor and highlighting the plight of rubber tappers in Kedah, which ended in mass arrests of students.
Even after the campus moved to Kuala Lumpur in 1959, student concerns were mostly limited to campus issues and student welfare.
Newspaper Berita Harian’s front-page reports on student protests in 1974.
In protest of the arrests, student groups led by University of Malaya Student Union (UMSU) president Kamarazaman Yacob formed the Majlis Tertinggi Sementara (MTS)i and wrestled control over campus administration from the university staff.
This was also a time of conflict among student activists. MTS was opposed by a pro-government group called Majlis Tindakan Nasional (MTN), which raided UMSU’s Union House and kidnapped Kamarazaman. Eventually, order was restored: UMSU was suspended and MTN dissolved itself within a weekii.
On- and off-campus unrest led to stricter UUCA amendments in 1975.
Prominent student leader Hishamuddin Rais speaking during a demonstration in Tasek Utara, Johor, which saw a mass arrest of students
The 1975 amendment to the UUCA doused the fervour of student activists for the next 20 years.
These amendments severely limited students’ freedom of expression and association, leading to:
- The disbandment of student organisations.
- Replacement of student unions with less autonomous Student Representative Councils.
- Prohibition from joining, associating, and expressing support for or opposition against any political party or trade union.
- The university holding the power to register, refuse to register, or deregister any student society, whereby its decision cannot be challenged by students.
The arrest of 1,135 people at a student demonstration that involved over 10,000 students from all over the country in 1974
Academic staff were not exempt from the restrictions. The Discipline of Staff Rules in 1979 forbade university staff from holding positions in political parties or standing for election, making public statements or publishing materials in support of any parties.
With intense scrutiny and surveillance hanging over student activities, students held no demonstrations for the next five years after the 1975 amendments to the UUCAiii.
The Star’s report on Musa Hitam, Malaysia’s Education Minister in 1979, intending to meet with the Academic Staff Association (ASA) that was unhappy with the Discipline of Staff Rules 1979
Student movements were no longer as spirited, but they were not entirely muted. Students began to advocate other causes on campus, namely religion-related issues.
While Malaysia’s Islamic resurgence had taken root in the early 1970s among young Muslim students in tertiary institutions, it was amplified by the government’s Islamisation drive in the 1980s to 1990siv.
Anwar Ibrahim as the president of the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (ABIM), which he also co-founded in 1971.
The dakwah movement initially emerged as a space advocating for socioeconomic justice with Islamic ideals in the late ‘60s, melding Malay nationalist and Islamist paradigms together through groups such as ABIM.
Eventually, the movement began to focus on personal behaviour and linked them to wider social issues by decrying them as ‘social ills’, such as public displays of affection or women’s clothing that were not deemed to meet Islamic standardsv.
Meanwhile, non-Malays became more marginalised from campus-level student leadership through the 1980svi, participating instead through alternative mediums such as off-campus NGOs, such as the Consumers’ Association of Penang or through campus electionsvii.
Non-communal politics came to the forefront in the late 1990s after an apparent disconnect between racial groups previously. This was a time when Generation M – students who have grown up under the premiership of Mahathir Mohamad (1981 to 2003) – made up majority of the campus demographicviii.
Mahathir had been responsible for much of the curb on activism, including the mass detainment of social and political activists in 1987 under Operasi Lalang. Ironically, his policies led to a revival of student activism in Malaysia.
Mahathir Mohamad (right)
In 1999, the controversial dismissal of Mahathir’s deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, catalysed the Reformasi movement.
The movement led to the emergence of a new dimension in Malaysian politics, one that revitalised the previously exhausted student movement. It united students from various backgrounds pushing for non-communal politics to fight for social justice, civil liberties, and good governanceix.
The Reformasi movement, reportedly the biggest demonstration in Kuala Lumpur’s history at the time.
- Weiss, M. (2011). Student Activism in Malaysia: Crucible, Mirror, Sideshow. Ithaca, N.Y: Southeast Asia Program, Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University.
- Weiss, M. (2011). Student Activism in Malaysia: Crucible, Mirror, Sideshow. Ithaca, N.Y: Southeast Asia Program, Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University.
- Weiss, M. L. (2005). Still with the People?: The Chequered Path of Student Activism in Malaysia. South East Asia Research, 13(3), 287–332.
- Weiss, M. L. (2005). Still with the People?: The Chequered Path of Student Activism in Malaysia. South East Asia Research, 13(3), 287–332.
- Weiss, M. L. (2005). Still with the People?: The Chequered Path of Student Activism in Malaysia. South East Asia Research, 13(3), 287–332.
- K. S. Jomo, Hassan Abdul Karim, and Ahmad Shabery Cheek, "Malaysia," in Student Political Activism: An International Reference Handbook, ed. Philip G. Altbach (New York, NY: Greenwood, 1989),
- Mohd. Shuhaimi Al-Maniri, De Sebalik Tabir: Politik Kampus (Bangi: Generasi Baru, 1995), pp. 50.
- UPP-IKD (2003), ‘Generation M and its role in a democratic Malaysia’, in Nurul Mu’az Omar, ed, Values of Democracy and Youth, Unit Pendidikan Politik, Institut Kajian Dasar, Kuala Lumpur.
- Weiss, M. L. (2005). Still with the People?: The Chequered Path of Student Activism in Malaysia. South East Asia Research, 13(3), 287–332
