The Student Freedom Fund or ‘Tabung Kebebasan Mahasiswa‘ is an initiative born out an idea by Edmund Bon, Chairman of the Malaysian Bar Council Constitutional Law Committee to aid the financial needs for court disbursements for the four Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) students, dubbed the ‘UKM 4′ charged under Section 15(5)(a) Akta Universiti & Kolej Universiti (AUKU) 1971 for allegedly campaigning in the Hulu Selangor by-election in April 2010.
The UKM 4 are: Muhammad Hilman bin Idham, Muhammad Ismail bin Aminuddin, Woon King Chai and Azlin Shafina. All are currently final year Political Science students in UKM (as of October 2010).
Appointed in October 2010, the Pro-Tem Committee Members of the fund consists of Lingswaran Singh, Izmil Amri Ismail and Karl Rafiq Nadzarin. They are tasked to maintain transparency of the funds, generously donated by the public to aid the four UKM students in their legal battles and also for all the future students in Malaysia, who might face the same predicament as the UKM 4.
Being embroiled in a long court battle have put the four UKM students under great financial strains, even with the counsels and solicitors (Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, Haris Ibrahim & Ashok Kandiah) providing legal assistance pro-bono. This fund is setup to appeal to the public for financial assistance to pay for the court disbursements and administrative fees in order for the UKM students to continue their challenge against Section 15(5)(a) of AUKU 1971 through legal procedures. Costs of appeal and disbursements are expected to reach upwards of RM10,000 and that amount is exclusive of the cost ordered by the court against the four UKM students.
Looking at the big picture, these four UKM students are not the first students in Malaysia to have their rights, supposedly guaranteed under the Federal Constitution blatantly abused and disregarded by the university, they will certainly not be the last. Therefore, this fund is also aimed to help any students in the future who may go through the same predicaments as the UKM 4.
Any financial contributions can be made to the following CIMB Account at the following details:
CIMB Acc. No.: 12490098507528
Name: Lingswaran Singh
plagiated from http://studentfreedomfund2010.wordpress.com. Please visit their site for more information about the Student Freedom Fund.
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