A STUDENT activist group today apologised to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong for posting a statement questioning the ruler’s powers.

The Universiti Malaya Association of New Youth (Umany) also withdrew its statement published on October 30 on its social media channels.

“After consulting with several constitutional experts, Umany has decided to withdraw the statement titled ‘Yang di-Pertuan Agong Should Not Interfere in National Affairs’ published on October 30 on our English and Chinese Facebook pages.

“We affirm our adherence to the constitutional monarchy system in Malaysia and respect the role of the Agong in the constitution.

“We would like to apologise to the Agong and the public for our lack of thorough understanding of the constitution,” it said in a statement today.

The police are investigating Umany under the Sedition Act and the Communications and Multimedia Act after Universiti Malaya lodged a report over the statement.

The police had also carried out a raid at Umany president Yap Wen Qing’s house as part of their investigations.

They also arrested Umany’s former president, Wong Yan Ke, for recording and live-streaming the raid.

The student group had issued its statement after the king rejected Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s proposal for a proclamation of emergency and advised MPs to support Budget 2021 tabled last Friday.

Earlier this week, Yap told The Malaysian Insight that Umany’s statement was aimed at spurring academic discussion, and that it was not criticising the monarchy but stating facts gathered from lawyers and constitutional experts.

“We wanted to express our academic opinion, nothing more than that. We know there will be consequences to comment on the king’s decree, so it was purely based on academic grounds,” the 22-year-old Physics student had said.

“I do not understand why so many people tried to intimidate us after the statement was released. It was an academic opinion.” – November 12, 2020.