In a Facebook post, the spokesperson for youth group Challenger revealed he was banned from speaking in Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) today.
Earlier this week, he was banned from Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (Usim) and Universiti Tenaga Nasional (Uniten).
“I expected the Minister of Higher Education, YB Idris Jusoh to speak up for the rights of students, instead he brushed the issue aside.
“I’ve learnt something new today. The ministry will use me as long as it benefits them. When it doesn’t, they will distance themselves,” he said, citing his current predicament, compared to when he was lauded by ministry officials when he won debate championships.
“When you succeed, it’s the ministry’s achievement. When you get blocked from speaking in universities which are under the MOHE (Ministry of Higher Education Ministry), it’s suddenly not under their jurisdiction,” he said.
He called on Idris to protect students, instead of the “Prime Minister of Malaysia.”
Netizens however have rallied behind Syed, voicing their support for him, with some giving suggestions on how he could find other ways to be heard.
“Setup a live YouTube broadcast with a moderator helping you receive Q&A from the viewers. Google Hangouts work for this too.
“Your target audience is also extremely tech savvy. Technology makes it all possible, and gives you the sort of reach that would otherwise be impossible,” Facebook user Aizuddin Danian suggested.
Another Facebook user, Luqman Hakim Mohamad Rom, said that “banning” was Umno’s culture.
“I personally agree with this quote and expected this to happen a while ago. Not just you, other leaders as well like Tun Mahathir, Muhyiddin Yassin, etc.
“This is not because of Najib only, this is the whole culture of Umno. As long as these senior leaders is (sic) in power, nothing (is) going to change,” he said.