Event Summary
On 21 August 2025, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) student Abdul Qayyum was arrested at his home by police who arrived in two cars and one motorcycle. He was taken alone to the Kota Kinabalu district police headquarters without legal counsel present. Police confiscated his mobile phone and SIM card, informing him that his statement would be recorded but not clarifying his detention status.
Qayyum was investigated under Section 4(1) of the Sedition Act over a comment he posted on Sabah Governor Musa Aman’s Facebook page. The comment, made under a post on Musa’s page about an award ceremony and later deleted, criticised the governor over perceived inaction regarding the highly publicised Zara Qairina case. He was detained for close to five hours and questioned, with the investigating officer initially indicating a possible court remand the next day. However, Qayyum was released without charge later that night, though his phone remains under police custody.
Qayyum’s arrest cannot be separated from Sabah’s heightened sensitivities around public criticism of its political leadership. His Facebook comment targeting Governor Musa Aman came less than a year after graphic artist and activist Fahmi Reza was arrested and deported from Kota Kinabalu for publicly displaying a caricature of Musa in December 2024. Fahmi’s action triggered more than 30 police reports and public condemnation from Sabah-based organisations, including veterans’ groups, political parties, and NGOs, who claimed the caricature insulted the state’s Yang di-Pertua Negeri and undermined social harmony. Some demanded that Fahmi be barred from entering Sabah, while others emphasised that only Sabahans had the “right” to criticise Sabah leaders, framing outsiders’ criticism as a form of intrusion.
Qayyum’s arrest makes him the third university student activist this year to be arrested under the Sedition Act. Earlier, Fadhil Kasim and Aliff Danial Badrul Akmal Hisham—both coordinators of the Gempur Rasuah Sabah 2.0 protest—were arrested alongside fellow activist Sabir Syarafuddin after torching a caricature of the Prime Minister during the rally. In all three cases, students were subjected to arrest rather than voluntary questioning, underscoring the criminalising of dissent through a colonial-era law.
This backlash highlights how criticism of Musa Aman has been politicised as both an insult to the governor’s office and, by extension, to Sabah’s dignity and unity. It also reflects a broader culture where political sensitivities are amplified by appeals to local identity and loyalty to state institutions. This sits within a longer trajectory of Sedition Act misuse against activists.