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Malaysian crowd breaks through university gates to attend Anwar Ibrahim's talk

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A large crowd forced open the Universiti Malaya (UM) gate near Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur after a standoff of more than an hour with campus guards on Monday evening (Oct 27). 

According to the Star online, the students stood in the rain while waiting for Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, whom they had invited to address them.

The event, titled "40 years, from UM to prison" was organised by university's Student Council a just day before Anwar was due in court on Tuesday (Oct 28) for his final appeal against his sodomy conviction. 

The university had earlier declared the event illegal and Malaysian Insider reported that UM's staff were allowed to go home early on that day​.

As the rain poured, several student leaders gave speeches urging the crowd, estimated at about 2,000 people by Malaysian Insider, to break down the gate.

Then at about 9.25pm, the crowd broke down the gate and 15 minutes​s late Anwar arrived with his wife, PKR leader, Wan Azizah Ismail, and daughter Nurul Izzah, who is party vice-president.

 

 

 

As Anwar and his family walked in, the students loudly chanted “Reformasi”  (Reformation) and “Bangkit Mahasiswa”(Students Rise).

The president of the student council, Fahmi Zainol said that he now faced the threat of suspension from the school for organising the event, a threat which the student who received a scholarship from the Public Service Department is unfazed by. 

“If they want to expel me, then go ahead. Let this be a lesson for the public on what is going on in universities and Malaysia" he told Malaysian Insider. 

Source: Star Online, Mala​ysia Insider

 

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