Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim said the university authorities should instead focus on improving its declining academic performance and quality.

The university has called up a group of students for disciplinary action for questioning the university’s Internet policy. However, Sim said the university’s vice-chancellors and administrators should be the ones facing disciplinary proceedings “for their failing in their responsibilities to our children”.

Sim said Malaysian universities should focus on improving academic quality, “not on silencing our students and stifling their thoughts”.

He urged UM to retract the disciplinary notice issued to the six students who in December had complained of the limited Internet quotas available at the campus.

The notice said the students had breached the university’s regulations by organising a press conference without first obtaining approval.

“If our students aren’t allowed to speak up or to think critically, then our universities are nothing more than just a robot-producing-factory,” Sim said. “UM’s vice-chancellor and administration should not embarrass the nation’s oldest university by wasting its time on clamp down efforts.”

“Don’t act like a dictator or worse, like a kindergarten administrator where students aren’t allowed to do anything without them approving it first,” he said.