“Fahmi used us,” says student body

By admin-s On Oct 29, 2014

(FMT) – Hailed as a hero by many, it has been revealed Fahmi Zainol acted alone for his own political reasons.

University Malaya students made history Monday when they banded together against university authorities in their insistence to host opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim at their campus grounds to hear his talk “40 Years: From University of Malaya to Jail”.

However a dark shadow has been cast over this show of solidarity now that it has been revealed that student leader and MPPUM (Student Representative Council of Universiti Malaya) president Fahmi Zainol acted independently without the agreement of any of the 43 other council members.

Speaking exclusively to FMT, MPPUM chairman of Residential Colleges and Off Campus, Mohd Faridzuan Karim said, “This talk was never discussed with us. We were completely ignored, like we didn’t matter one bit.

“Fahmi used his power as YDP (president) to make a unilateral decision to go ahead with a programme that was not agreed to by the rest of us.”

Expressing his indignation at seeing posters bearing MPPUM’s name plastered all over campus, Mohd Faridzuan said, “Why and how and what is his (Fahmi) rationale for using MPPUM’s name in the posters that was placed all over the university?”

Clearly stating his personal stand, Mohd Faridzuan said, “I do not support this programme (the talk by Anwar).”

Mohd Faridzuan also said MPPUM was against Fahmi insisting on hosting Anwar on campus grounds for the simple reason that the Student’s Affairs Department (HEP) of the university had not endorsed it.

Explaining that no working paper regarding the programme was submitted by Fahmi to HEP as was the standard operating procedure, Mohd Faridzuan added, “We should, as undergraduates, follow procedures.”

He also revealed that most of the students who attended were not even made up of UM students, but those from outside.