Background to Suppression

The dispute over the Discipline of Staff Rules is only the latest round in the running battle between the government and the academic community over the fundamental principles of university autonomy, freedom and the basic democratic rights of intellectuals. The struggle dates back to the 1960s when students and academics began to be more vocal in articulating the plight of the disinherited masses of the people, actively supporting their struggles (e.g. the landless peasants led by Hamid Tuah in clearing and occupying 'state' land in the 60s) and exposing government corruption and mismanagement of the country's affairs.

During the general elections in May 1969, the University of Malaya Students' Union put forward a manifesto analysing the problems facing our people, voicing their demands for civil liberties and social justice, and held election rallies, attended by tens of thousands of people in towns and countryside, to explain the root causes of the country's ills and expose the government's indifference to and complicity in the hardships of the common people. Then in 1971, amidst widespread protests at home and abroad, the government enacted the Universities and University College Act (UUCA) designed to [unclear: streng-] The Act tailed suppress student activities.