Anis Syafiqah Mohd Yusof said the time is not right now to organise such a protest gathering because of university examinations and semester breaks.
“We’ll continue to protest, but maybe in a different form. So far I haven’t made a decision on how we’ll move forward but I’ll discuss the matter with other team members,” she told FMT.
She added that for the time being she was protesting and raising awareness through social media.
The Tangkap MO1 rally was organised at Dataran Merdeka by a coalition of student and youth groups on Aug 27 last year.
Some 1,000 participants called for the arrest of “MO1” named in the first DoJ civil suit linked to the state-owned fund in July last year.
Anis, who was suspended from Universiti Malaya following the rally, also said that there was a need to look at other ways to protest besides street demonstrations.
Strengthening student movement
She however, said the key focus now is to strengthen the student movement which had become “not so strong” possibly due to the culture of fear created by the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 (UUCA).
She said she estimated that only about 5% of public university students were willing to take part.
“I think maybe they’ve made an example of me, so others are scared. But we shouldn’t stop,” she said.
She said the UUCA effectively stemmed the growth of young leaders and made youths feel afraid.
The “fear” factor was preventing Malaysia from producing many young leaders, she added.
Anis and two UM undergraduates were issued show-cause letters for their involvement and summoned to a disciplinary hearing. They were fined RM400 and suspended for a semester.
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia student Asheeq Ali Sethi Alivi was also suspended for a semester and fined RM200 for his participation.
Anis also said concerns over cost of living made people refrain from being active in politics.
“Many want to focus on studying and finding a job and they’re afraid to participate in politics. And when they start work after their studies they get tied down even more,” she said.
The UUCA has often been criticised for deterring university students from joining political activities.
Last year, DAP’s Damansara Utama assemblywoman Yeo Bee Yin said even though the UUCA was amended in 2012 to allow students to partake in politics outside campus, Section 15 of the act still prohibited political activities in campus.
It also imposes restrictions on students in joining organisations that the university board determines to be “unsuitable to the interests and well-being of the students or the university”, she had said.
“Section 15 coupled with Section 4 strips away autonomy from the universities and makes critical thinking and objective debates impossible in campuses across Malaysia,” she said, adding that the act had discouraged students from speaking up on national issues and participating in politics.
Student members of political parties
Anis said the student movement needed to remain independent and no party, be it from the government or opposition, should try to make use of it.
The final year student acknowledged that some students are members of political parties and it was their right to join any party.
“Unfortunately this is bad branding for the student movement because we have to be independent. We have to protest against anyone who is corrupt,” she said.
Anis said even though students may follow certain political parties, they must speak out against corruption.
She said she has never been afraid to speak up against anyone, and in recent times has spoken up on Pakatan Harapan’s internal conflicts as well.
Some political parties have student movements under their banners.
These include the Mahasiswa Amanah Nasional, a bureau comprising Amanah Youth and Mahasiswa Keadilan, and the Kelab Umno Luar Negara for overseas students.
Earlier this month, DoJ in court filings said it is seeking to seize US$540 million (RM2.3 billion) in assets, including art works, jewellery, a yacht worth US$165 million, and film rights to the two comedies “Dumb and Dumber To” starring Jim Carrey and “Daddy’s Home” featuring Will Ferrell, all paid for with funds allegedly embezzled from 1MDB.
The DoJ suit also said Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, had purchased a 22-carat pink diamond necklace worth US$27.3 million for the “wife of Malaysian Official No. 1”, using the same source of funds.
Last July’s civil forfeiture suit sought to recover all the assets including but not limited to the Park Lane Hotel in New York, a luxury hotel in Beverly Hills, condominiums in New York, a private jet, expensive works of art, as well as the financing of Martin Scorsese’s movie “The Wolf of Wall Street” starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
With the recent court filings, the total value of the assets sought by the DoJ increases to US$1.8 billion (RM7.7 billion).
The DoJ charged that from 2009 to 2015, more than US$4.5 billion (RM19 billion) belonging to 1MDB had been diverted by high-level officials of the fund and their associates.