Student protest over Taib Mahmud plaza in Australia
PETALING JAYA: Students at University of Adelaide want a plaza that honours Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud to be renamed.
According to The Australian, the Sarawak Chief Minister studied at University of Adelaide under the postwar Colombo Plan.
"Taib Mahmud, Chief Minister of Sarawak Court" was so named in December 2008 after a multi-million-dollar bequest to the university,” it reported.
The newspaper reported: “While low-level criticism has persisted for years, students - this time backed by the student representative council and outside groups - will protest tomorrow and ask vice-chancellor Warren Bebbington to rescind the decision.”
Protest organiser Lizzie Taylor said she hoped management would respond once they saw that students were passionate about the issue.
"Regardless of how much money he's given, naming the court after him honours a man whose family companies are responsible for the displacement of the indigenous Penan people in Sarawak," she said.
A spokeswoman for Adelaide University said: "The university accepted gifts from Taib in good faith many years ago. No gifts have been accepted from him for more than seven years.
"The scholarships and facility named following Taib's gifts involve permanent trust obligations and agreements with which the university is bound to comply."
The Star
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