Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has been invited to officially open the International Islamic University (IIU) because he is the founder of institution, said its public relations director, Shamsul Azhar Mohd Yusof.

Shamsul said that Mahathir was accorded that status because he laid a foundation stone at its Gombak campus 18 years ago, in a five-page reply to Harakah 's recent report which questioned the university's invitation to the prime minister to open the institution next week.

He added that former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim was merely discharging his duty as a cabinet minister when he served as IIU president. Anwar was the first and longest-serving president of the university.

"Anwar has certainly contributed significantly to the development of IIU, but with due respect and to put it in the right perspective, he was carrying out his responsibilities as a minister in Mahathir's cabinet and government," stated Shamsul in the letter dated April 3.

"The fact remains that the PM founded the university in 1983 and his government has been financing IIU from the very beginning," stated Shamsul further.

Controversial opening

Next Tuesday's 'opening ceremony' has been mired in controversy after the campus community protested the invitation to Mahathir to open the university - after nearly two decades of functioning as a full-fledged institution.

Many have described the event to be another attempt to obliterate the university's former president Anwar Ibrahim who is serving a 15- year jail term on charges of corruption and sodomy.

"We wish to make it clear that the plan for the official opening of IIU was decided by the university's top management eight months ago. It is not surprising that many outsiders would consider it rather odd the university has never been officially opened in its 18 years of operation but that is a matter of fact," said Shamsul.

"The official opening of the university by the person who founded it in 1983 is therefore very appropriate and it is most incorrect and unfair to interpret it as 'another attempt to obliterate Anwar'," he added..

New president

Anwar was the university's president before he was sacked from cabinet and subsequently jailed. Last year, former menteri besar of Kedah Sanusi Junid was appointed its new president.

Anwar and the university's former rector Abdul Hamid Abu Sulayman who left the country during the former's court trials in 1999 - have been instrumental in the construction of the sprawling campus with its distinctive Islamic architecture.

Meanwhile, three secondary schools in Gombak have been asked to send their students to greet the prime minister during the 'opening' ceremony of the university.

New students of IIU who have just completed their one-week orientation course have also been told to come back on April 17 to attend the ceremony.

Since the announcement, there have been calls for a boycott of the event circulating via the Internet and other mediums. Leaflets have also been distributed urging the people to gather at the venue and protest the opening by the prime minister.