Chapter 1 – Report of the Policy, Law and Complaints Group
(iv) Register the student groups, namely ‘Pro-Mahasiswa’ and ‘Pro-Aspirasi’, as legitimate
contesting groups in campus elections to ease the responsibility of university
administration bodies to monitor and regulate the groups.
Due to the lack of representation from university administration bodies in the above RTD,
the Commission organised another RTD on 1 July, inviting the Deputy Vice Chancellors
of Student Affairs (DVC) from all public universities, and representatives of the MOE, in
order to provide an opportunity for the DVCs to give their responses on the issues and
recommendations recorded during the RTD in February.
The attendance of the DVCs was overwhelming. From the start, the Commission was
questioned on its procedure in receiving complaints from a non-registered entity, as most
if not all of the student bodies that complained to the Commission were not registered. The
Commission explained that the Commission’s assessment of complaints is based on several
criteria, the most important being the issue raised in the complaint. A complaint cannot be
rejected only on the basis of the status of the complainant as the Commission also receives
complaints from prisoners, refugees who are not recognised by the Government, and many
others. Moreover, Section 12(1) of the SUHAKAM Act also does not stipulate the status of
a complainant as a basis for the rejection of a complaint. The discussion that followed led
to the salient points summarised below:
(i)
E-voting or manual voting is only a means to select student leaders. The e-voting
system is used because manual voting is a time consuming process especially when it
comes to the counting of ballot papers. Due to the many controversies surrounding the
implementation of the current system, and the fact that it consumes a lot of time and
resources, the university administration bodies suggested that other means to select
student leaders be considered to replace the current system, for instance selecting
student leaders based on certain academic and co-curricular performances.
(ii)
Terminologies, such as campus elections, nomination day, campaigning period, and
polling day, were used by political parties and the media to create unwanted excitement
and rivalry among the students.
(iii) The SRC cannot be allowed to join senate meetings because matters discussed in the
meetings include those related to students’ examination and academic performances,
which are confidential. However, the SRC can sit in other committee meetings, such
as meetings of the committee on student welfare, which are already open to the SRC.
88
BOOK-ANR2016-01-latest.indb 88
08/04/2016 3:32 PM