UNIVERSITI Malaya student leader Wong Yan Ke said he had previously protested against the Pakatan Harapan government for its failure to fulfil its election promises.

The Universiti Malaya Association of New Youth president – who was manhandled during a protest against Najib Razak yesterday – said the protests he had joined were all driven by principles and ideals.

“A silent protest is a rightful practice of our democratic and constitutional rights. I have been involved in several protests or rallies, before and even after May 9. When Maszlee (Malik) was appointed as the president of IIUM, I was there with Asheeq Ali, Izzah and other student activists to protest against his appointment.

“When RM1,050 was announced as the minimum wage, I was there with the Malaysian Trades Union Congress members, protesting and submitting a memorandum to the minister, Kulasegaran.

“When the budget of University of Malaya was slashed, I was there at Parliament, doing a silent protest and submitted a memorandum to Maszlee and other MPs from both the government and opposition side, urging the MPs to look into the matter seriously and to debate it in Parliament,” he said.

All the protests they had carried out were peaceful and not aimed at any political party, he added.

Wong claimed that the Umno supporters led by Lokman Noor Adam had made criminal intimidation against the students.

He added that he was not provoking Umno supporters but was protesting silently against the 1MDB mega scandal.

“We wanted him (Najib) to know that we, the people of Malaysia, will not forget his involvement in one of the biggest scandals in history and how he has abused our democratic system even though he is now trying by all means to rebrand himself for the sake of his political survival.

“We stood there silently, raising up placards in silent protest. In all seriousness, we were exercising our constitutional rights to freely express and assemble without arms in accordance to Article 10(1)(a) and (b).

“Racial remarks were thrown as they forcefully grabbed the placard from us. We were pushed, grabbed, scratched, slapped and I was even choked violently by them.

“They even threaten to smash our heads, which is a criminal intimidation,” he said.   

Wong lodged a police report this afternoon over the incident.

Yesterday evening, Lokman defended the way his group manhandled a student protester.

He said the students, who were protesting against Najib near where the former prime minister was holding a meet-and-greet session outside UM, had at first been politely told to move away.

He also denied that he was gripping the student’s neck in images of the incident.

“I was (actually) trying to let him (the student) loose. The image depicts as if I was trying to hit him. But no, I was not hitting him. He was also holding my arm therefore it looked like we are in a scuffle,” Lokman told The Malaysian Insight. – March 23, 2019.