The Malaysian Student Department organised a 'Kursus Pentadbiran Persatuan Pelajar' (K3P) on Nov 2, 2002. As one of the participants, I was disappointed to see that only a select number of students were invited to the course.

When I read in malaysiakini that MSD director Kamarudin Mohd Nor said he would invite representatives from Hizbi and Keadilan in the UK, I thought that that was a very positive development. However, this proves to be mere lip-service.

Only representatives from various smaller, and very localised organisations were invited to the do. The more national-level societies such as Majlis Syura Muslimun UK and Eire, Hizbi UK and Ireland, Keadilan, etc. were not even invited.

I would not find this difficult to accept had Kamarudin himself not said that these societies would be invited. He had also proposed the setting up of another society to cover Scotland, England, Wales and perhaps Ireland too. Thus it was no surprise when he proposed that the MSD becomes the 'advisor' to these newly formed societies. And according to him, the constitutions of these societies would have to be synchronised and standardised — again, it is a dictation set by the MSD.

I personally see this as an effort by the MSD to have a stronger grip on student activism in the UK and Ireland. There are already various national-level societies in the UK and Ireland but Kamarudin chose to completely ignore them.

United Kingdom Executive Council for Malaysian Students (Ukec) should be the umbrella organisation as it is already established and multiracial. Is it because the MSD does not have total control over Ukec that there is thus a necessity to create a new one? The tactic of creating a new 'recognised' association is not new.

In the Middle East, particularly in Jordan and Egypt, MSDs over there have set up a new student association after realising that they could not control the established ones. They successfully created division among students there and it looks like MSD London is trying to do the same. In fact, MSD representatives in Ireland have been trying to do the same too, though thus far they have been unsuccessful.

I want to take this opportunity to call upon the MSD London to stop acting as a stooge for Umno and Barisan Nasional. It should admit that students in the UK are becoming more independent in their intellectual quest and should not try to stop their growth and activities. Students in the UK should denounce the attempt to divide them.

This is an obvious attempt by the MSD to put a stranglehold on students' activities and we should never let this happen. There are already well-established students' societies at the national level in the UK such as Ukec, Hizbi, MSM, MISG-Abim.

The former two are open to all regardless of race or religion while the latter two focuses on Malay Muslims. Additionally, there are also city-based societies that have existed for decades. London MSD's political interest should not be allowed to muddle our aim to look after the welfare of students in UK and Ireland.