JOHOR BAHARU: The Higher Education Ministry is to refrain from taking any action and will let the police investigation take its course in the case of the 15 tertiary students who staged a demonstration at KL Sentral in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said yesterday.
He said the protest by the students against the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 was held outside the university campus and, as such, the matter came under the jurisdiction of the police.
“Going by the Act as it was, we can take action but, considering the spirit of the Act to be amended in March, we will not take any action,” he told reporters after the renaming of Johor Baharu Premier Polytechnic as Ibrahim Sultan Polytechnic.
Mohamed Khaled said the ministry would leave it to the police and would not interfere in the matter.
The students, believed to be members of the Movement for Academic Freedom (Bebas), were detained after they ignored a police directive to disperse.
They were brought to the Travers police station and their statements recorded under Section 27 of the Police Act 1967, and then released on police bail.
The students, aged between 20 and 22, are from Universiti Malaya, Universiti Teknologi Mara, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Universiti Selangor and Selangor International Islamic University College.
Meanwhile, the police in Kuala Lumpur have released on bail all the 15 students after recording their statements under Section 27 of the Police Act 1967. — Bernama