An investigation has been opened after several police reports were lodged against the president of a Universiti Malaya student body over his recent remarks about the matriculation programme.
Bukit Aman criminal investigation department (CID) director M Kumar said police received five reports about Universiti Malaya Association of New Youth (Umany) president Tang Yi Ze’s statement suggesting that the matriculation system be replaced by STPM as the sole standard for admission into public universities.
He said the case is being investigated under Section 505(b) of the Penal Code for statements conducive to public mischief, Berita Harian reported.
“The case is also being investigated under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 for improper use of network facilities,” he was quoted as saying.
On Sunday, the Federation of Peninsular Malay Students (GPMS) said numerous police reports were lodged nationwide against Umany over its remarks about the matriculation programme and called for the group to be probed for sedition.
Penang GPMS vice-chairman Danial Alimin said the state chapter alone had lodged six police reports, with its members in other states expected to do the same.
In the statement by Umany last Friday, Tang had said the STPM syllabus was better since it was more challenging and was internationally recognised.
On Saturday, however, Umany said it had not intended to call for the abolition of the matriculation programme, but sought a merger of the programme with STPM as the sole university entrance qualification.
It admitted that the use of the word “abolish” in its earlier statement had led to confusion and rubbed certain quarters the wrong way, and apologised for the confusion caused.
