While Fahmi had initially planned to host the workshop at a USM cafeteria, he was forced to move the workshop to a nearby restaurant and then to a residential and business complex after university authorities stopped the event.

In a Twitter post, one of the students, Ikhwan Zainuddin, said he found it “amusing” that the police questioned him for merely attending the workshop.

“What did we do wrong by wanting to know about (Malaysia’s) democratic system?” he asked.

He added that the police wanted to know about his personal background, the workshop’s organisers, the material that Fahmi taught, and whether Fahmi “incited” the students to vote for a particular political party.

On Twitter, Fahmi asked the police to explain why the students were questioned and said he had never “incited” students to vote for any particular party.

“You can check with all the students who joined my democracy classes,” he said.

Fahmi hosted several democracy workshops for public university students around the country in the weeks leading up to the 15th general election. Authorities at several universities stopped him from holding the workshops on campus grounds.

FMT has contacted Penang northeast district police chief Soffian Santong for comment.