A Merdeka day event planned by several organisations in the UK was abruptly cancelled after Malaysian authorities warned the main speaker, a Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) history professor, against participating.

The Wacana Kemerdekaan in Birmingham, England, originally planned for Sept 7, was to feature a talk on the history of Malaysia's struggle for independence by Professor Nik Anuar Nik Mahmud, head of history, politics and strategic studies centre, UKM,.

However, the event could not proceed after the Malaysian Student Department (MSD) in London and UKM authorities warned Nik Anuar not to deliver his talk at the event.

"The MSD said that I should not speak for security reasons. It was the same with UKM. I was just following orders," Nik Anuar said when contacted.

He added that the authorities did not elaborate on what the "security reasons" might have been, but speculated that it could have been related to the then impending anniversary of the Sept 11 terror attacks in US.