Higher education ministry unhappy non-citizens involved in UMS water protest

Deputy higher education minister Mustapha Sakmud said students can protest but they must contact the relevant authorities and obtain the necessary permits. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: The higher education ministry has expressed its disappointment over the involvement of non-Malaysians in a protest over Universiti Malaysia Sabah’s (UMS) water woes.

Its deputy minister, Mustapha Sakmud, said he was surprised to learn about the organisers’ actions in a news report, Sinar Harian reported.

“This was confirmed by the student leader of Suara Mahasiswa himself, who admitted to bringing in what he described as ‘stateless’ people,” he was quoted as saying.

“In my opinion, non-citizens should not have been involved in the issues concerning the people of Sabah. I did not expect this to happen, especially as it involves our students.”

Mustapha, who is also the Sepanggar MP, said while students have the right to protest, they must contact the relevant authorities and obtain the necessary permits.

“As I explained earlier, one must be rational in issues of public struggle. We are not preventing them from demonstrating.

“From the beginning, I advised them to obtain a permit and conduct peaceful and rational demonstrations, but what they did was bring in non-citizens to increase the number of participants, and this should not have happened,” he said.

On Friday, police arrested nine individuals who attended the protest after an inspection of the van they were travelling in found that they did not have any identification documents on them.

The protesters had marched about 3km from UMS to Menara Kinabalu to deliver the memorandum that highlighted UMS’s water woes.

The students refused to budge without chief minister Hajiji Noor receiving the document and spent about 17 hours camped outside Menara Kinabalu until Saturday morning before dispersing.

Sabah deputy chief minister Shahelmey Yahya branded the students as “immature” after they refused his request to hand over the memorandum to him instead.