One of the organising groups behind the cancelled event on Universiti Malaya with former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has refuted the reasons given by one of their former co-organisers for the cancellation.

Universiti Malaya Muslim Students Association (PMIUM) president Muhammad Wafiuddin Rosli said that their former co-organiser Universiti Malaya Student Council (MPPUM) was not in charge of correspondence with Mahathir and his people.

"What a commotion, when (MPPUM representative) Adham Kamarulzaman contacted Mahathir, when it was not MPPUM's responsibility in organising the talk by Mahathir.

"Especially when we already decided on the responsibilities of each groups outlined in our meetings," Wafiuddin said in a statement today.

He further explained that main organiser Universiti Malaya Kedah Students Association (Permadah) was the one in charge of paperwork, event protocols and correspondence with Mahathir's people.

MPPUM had been assigned to technical assistance and preparing the event venue and catering, while PMIUM had been charged with publicity, invitations and safety, Wafiuddin added.

As such, he said the fact that the letter of invitation to Mahathir issued by PMIUM should not be an issue as they were in charge of invitations after all.

Adham had also previously said that MPPUM were merely following the lead of Permadah in withdrawing as the organiser of the event.

“Following Permadah’s lead as main organiser, we regret to inform that MPPUM, too, withdraws as organiser of the programme with Dr Mahathir,” he said.

Wafiuddin also refuted this, explaining that Permadah had never officially said that they were withdrawing as organisers.

Instead, Permadah leadership said they had not expressed an official stand in an official statement on 16 March, and that they would only announce their decision in a meeting later on the same day, he said.

However, that meeting was not attended by MPPUM, he said, and so Permadah had postponed the announcement of their decision till the next meeting attended by all organisers.

Wafiuddin also stressed that he did not mean to blame anyone for the event cancellation, but merely wanted to shed light on what had happened.

"This talk on achieving Vision 2020 in four years (by Mahathir) should have been successful. Unfortunately, the administration are more concerned about taking care of themselves than wanting to develop the university with the culture of intellectualism," he said.

Previously, the event had been cancelled after PMIUM said they received a call from Mahathir's aide to say that MPPUM contacted them to cancel the programme without any discussion with them as co-organisers.

MPPUM then withdrew as organiser of the event.