1. Background

In 1971, amidst widespread protests both in Malaysia and abroad, the Government enacted the University and University Colleges Act (1971), designed to strengthen its control over the universities and to [unclear: supress] student activities. The Act failed to stultify critical enquiry by the students who continued to use their knowledge in analysing the problems faced by the people of this country. When the students began to articulate the difficulties and hardships faced by the squatters, peasants and workers, they incurred the open hostility of the authorities. Undaunted, the students all over the country continued in their struggles. In December, 1974 starvation brought the peasants and workers out to protest at Baling, Sik, Kubang Basu, Selama, Bandar Baru, Batu Kurau and many other areas. The students demanded that the Government take immediate action to alleviate the difficulties of the poor people. Instead of congratulating the students for taking an interest in the plight of the less privileged, the Government replied with crude repression. Thousands of troops were sent into the universities throughout the country to terrorise the students. Thirty-eight students, youth and religious leaders and lecturers were arrested. Some are still detained without trial and the whereabouts of some are still unknown.

In the wake of the students' expose of the Government indifference to the plight of the disinherited and the revelation of corruption and mismanagement of the country's affairs, the Government unleashed the might of their repressive machinery. The Bill to amend the University and University Colleges Act incorporates one such reaction designed to render the university a servile, unthinking and uncritical adjunct of the present Government.

What follows is a brief analysis of the more striking provisions of the Bill now being rushed through the current session of Parliament. The provisions couched as they are in such abrasive phraseology make abundantly clear the true motivations of the Government.