PAS Youth is upset with Entrepreneur Development Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz for his accusation in the media that the wing is "dilly dallying" with regards to the logistics of the debate o­n the controversial People's

Religious Schools or Sekolah Agama Rakyat (SAR).

The debate between Nazri, who is also Umno Chendoroh Youth chief and PAS Youth deputy chief Sallahuddin Ayob is set to take place tonight at Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) in Kuala Lumpur.

PAS denied that it was trying to delay the event, saying that it has made ample efforts to ensure that the debate would carry o­n "smoothly and comfortably".

"Actually PAS Youth has always given its utmost cooperation will all parties including Nazri's personal secretary. We have always hosted the tripartite meetings (between us, DBP and Nazri's rep) while Nazri has never offered to host even o­ne meeting," said the wing, in a press statement today.

Tolerated enough

"Nazri should not be upset or emotional that the venue, theme and moderator have been changed. We have tolerated enough in order to ensure that the debate takes place,"the wing added.

On Friday, Nazri told reporters in Kuala Kangsar that it was difficult to decide o­n the logistics of the debate despite several meetings with PAS.

There are always changes to the venue, topic and moderator and they (PAS) kept o­n giving all kinds of excuses during the meeting between my representative and theirs, Bernama quoted him as saying.

He said initially, the venue of the debate was decided to take place at the Dewan Tunku Canselor, Universiti Malaya. Later it was changed to Auditorium Angkasa in Kelana Jaya and now at Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.

He said the topic was also altered from a controversial title such as "Government wants to close down SAR" to "SAR: Who is the traitor?" and then finally to "SAR: Challenges and The Future".

He added that the moderators were also changed from Royal Professor Ungku Aziz, followed by Parliament speaker Tun Mohamed Zahir Ismail to DBP director A. Aziz Deraman.

Friendlier theme

Meanwhile, PAS Youth said that the final topic was decided to show respect to DBP, who suggested a friendlier theme than the previous o­nes.

The wing said, whatever decision or changes were decided by the two representatives at all the meetings.

Eight hundred people are expected to attend the debate at the DBP auditorium at 8.30pm.

DBP has allocated 300 seats for supporters from each side. The remaining 200 will be reserved for academics, the media, representatives from non-governmental organisations and others.

How it started

The idea for the debate started when PAS' Salahuddin who had accused the government of trying to close down SAR by withdrawing the grants for the schools last October, received a challenge from Nazri to swear o­n the Quran that he was telling the truth.

Responding to the challenge, Salahuddin said he would accept it if Nazri had a o­ne-to-one debate with him o­n the issue.

PAS and Umno have had several meetings to determine the venue, theme and moderator of the debate.

The first meeting was held in Ipoh, Perak and the group decided that the venue be at Dewan Tuanku Cancellor of Universiti Malaya as first choice.