UPSI Students Beaten Up By Police

I blogged some time back about Adam Adli, a student activist from UPSI who had lowered a flag bearing the likeness of Najib Razak at the UMNO headquarters.

That did not go down too well with the powers that be, especially after emotional blackmail and calls for apology yielded no results.

There was an interesting excerpt from The Malaysian Insider, just a few days ago:

Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Khalid Abu Bakar said the authorities are keeping a close watch on Adam and advised him to exercise caution when going about his activities.

This prompted the feisty student to respond confidently that he does not feel threatened by such statements.

“I’m not going to give up. How can they restrict me? I don’t see why must they do so,” Adam Adli said.

“I believe, and I know, I’m not doing anything wrong … I’m just voicing out my rights to protest over government policies and actions,” he added.

Adam Adli is quite right -- he has fully exercised his lawful rights to protest.

It's just that the Malaysian government does not very much like any form of dissent from its people.

In fact, Adam Adli was warned, in no subtle terms, that the authorities would be likely to take action.

And take action they did, in the wee hours of the morning when the undergraduates had held a sit-down demonstration in the UPSI campus to protest the University and University Colleges Act (UUCA).

A lot of them were beaten up.

It was a completely peaceful protest. There was absolutely no reason for violence.

Certainly no reason for violence that led to Muhammad Safwan Anang, the president of undergraduate movement Gerakan Menuntut Kebebasan Akademic (Bebas), being sent to a hospital in Slim River after he lost consciousness.

He was beaten up so badly that he even lost some teeth.

The police are so brazen to beat up this young man for a peaceful protest, without caring about what the rest of the nation thought about this incident.

Were they relying on the mainstream media to keep mum? Or for the politicians to whitewash their actions so it seems reasonable to beat up a young student for his political views?

UPDATE: Apparently, they have asked Muhammad Safwan Anang to sign a document saying that he had sustained his injuries during a fall. There were witnesses who saw the beating -- did they think they could cover it up??!!