A former student leader has criticised the Malaysian Student Department (MSD) in London for its part in aborting a Merdeka Day talk in Birmingham on Sept 7.

"The MSD is trying to create a culture of fear by intimidating students and speakers at these events," said Rafizi Ramli, a former chairman of the United Kingdom Executive Council (Ukec) which acts as an umbrella body representing Malaysian student associations there.

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) history professor, Nik Anuar Nik Mahmud on a working visit to UK, was to talk on the history of Malaysia's struggle for independence at the ' Wacana Kemerdekaan ' (Merdeka dialogue).

The MSD advised him against speaking at the event for "security reasons". The last-minute cancellation left about 130 people fuming as they have travelled from as far as Scotland and Exeter to hear him.

The Muslim student organisation Al-Hizbul Islami United Kingdom and Eire or Hizbi <!RM>>

Not equal

"The MSD does not give equal treatment to student organisations. For example, they openly participate in Club Umno events and give their full support but they try to suppress activities from opposing groups," he said when contacted in London yesterday.

He added that students were encouraged to join Club Umno and other Barisan Nasional-related groups but were not allowed to join other societies deemed "unkind to the government".

Hizbi's invitation to the MSD director, Dr Kamaruddin Nor, to open the dialogue, did not get any response.

When contacted, an official who wished to remain anonymous said MSD turned down the invitation as Hizbi was not a registered society with the department.

To that, Rafizi claimed it was "a very lame excuse", but conceded that Hizbi was not registered with MSD.

He said the cancellation of the Birmingham event was part of a larger attempt by the authorities to create a "culture of fear" to keep Malaysian students away from events organised by the opposition.

"The authorities view the UK as a threat because the freedom here allows students to join demonstrations and things like that. So they try to be very stiff with students.

Psychological fears

"For example, threats are issued to students who try to attend [opposition-related events].Club Umno members and even Malaysian High Commission officers would be sent to the function [to remind students that they are being watched].

"At an anti-ISA event in 2000, I saw High Commission officers standing at the back of the room taking notes," he said.

Though unsure whether the Club Umno members and High Commission officers actually wrote reports on the events, Rafizi said their presence was enough to "intimidate" and create a "psychological fear" among students.

He alleged that the MSD had tried to sabotage previous events by dissuading speakers from attending but were unsuccessful because speakers in the past had been opposition leaders and activists who "couldn't care less" what the MSD had to say.

In response, the MSD official said the department did not prevent Nik Anuar from delivering his talk.

"We only advised him not to go for security reasons. It's a free country, if [speakers] want to talk, they can. We have no authority over them anyway. But I don't think the students understand this," he said.

Security reasons

Asked to elaborate on the "security reasons", the official said that groups in the UK were feeling jittery over the approaching Sept 11 anniversary and feared that the dialogue, organised by an Islamic group, might aggravate the situation.

The official alleged that Hizbi had also used the name of the United Kingdom Executive Council (Ukec) as a draw to its dialogue.

He said Ukec did not know anything about it although it was listed as a co-organiser on posters advertising the event.

Ukec chairperson Megat Iskandar conceded that Hizbi had indeed made a misrepresentation by billing the umbrella student body as a co-organiser.

"This is not true (that Ukec was a co-organiser). We only gave our moral support to that event and we are not involved in any part of the organisation of the event," he said.

Hizbi stressed that it was the only organisation involved in the planning and execution of the event while the other groups had only helped to publicise the event to their respective members.