KUALA LUMPUR: Police will summon the organisers of a student group which held a protest outside the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) headquarters here on Saturday to have their statements recorded.
Dang Wangi district police chief, Assistant Commissioner Shaharudin Abdullah, said this was to facilitate an investigation under the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012, as the group did not inform the police of their protest.
“No notice was given to the police pertaining to the assembly. We will take appropriate action in accordance with the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012,” he said in a brief WhatsApp message.
More than 100 university students had around noon assembled at the Masjid Jamek LRT station before marching around three kilometres to the PTPTN headquarters in Jalan Yap Kwan Seng.
The protest, organised by Gabungan Mahasiswa Islam Se-Malaysia (Gamis), was held to urge the government to fulfil its election pledge of making PTPTN loan repayments compulsory only for borrowers who earn RM4,000 or more monthly.
The participants bore several placards and banners with the slogans ‘Mahasiswa Ditekan’ (Students are being oppressed); ‘Kami Ditipu’ (We’ve been cheated); and ‘Tuntut Janji PTPTN’ (Fulfil your PTPTN promise).
The protest came about after PTPTN chairman, Wan Saiful Wan Jan, had on Nov 17, admitted that it could not implement the move, as promised in Pakatan Harapan’s manifesto.
Wan Saiful had said that if PTPTN pressed on with the move, it would have a negative long-term impact on the institution and even lead to PTPTN’s closure.
Meanwhile, Gamis president Muhammad Faizuddin Mohd Zai, said the group is demanding the resignation of Wan Saiful as well as Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik over their collective failure to see out the election pledge.
He said the reasoning offered by PTPTN on why it could not implement the move, including the argument that the nation’s economy is unstable, could not be accepted,
“If indeed the claims (that the economy is unstable) are true, then how is it that our ministers are still able to earn tens of thousands of ringgit as their monthly salaries.
“Leaders of this new government are earning more than what most people even need; they should focus on fixing the country’s education system,
“We vehemently oppose a system which benefits the rich and oppresses the poor,” he said.