The Malaysian Summit of Australia (Masa), an annual event held in Australia to bring together Malaysians living there, has withdrawn an invitation to DAP's Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua to speak as one of the panellists at an April 22 session.

Pua revealed in his Facebook account today that Masa had written to inform him that the "main sponsors" for the event, felt that it was not "in the best interest of everyone" to have him speak at the event.

Pua was initially part of an extended line-up of panellists for the four day event in Melbourne from April 20 to 24.

Among the other main speakers of the event are Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin Abdu Bakar and social activist Marina Mahathir ( left ), who is the daughter of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Pua said that he does not blame the student organisers, Malaysian Students Council of Australia (Masca) for retracting the invitation to him.

"It is clearly our Malaysian government sponsors who are deeply intent on closing the minds of our students, so frightened of an opposition leader's one hour presence in a four-day event," Pua said.

Masa in its note to Pua also said that it has tried the best to "convince" the sponsors about his presence at the event.

"It is with great regret and disappointment to tell you that we have to retract your invitation to speak at Malaysia Summit Australia Conference 2014 (Melbourne) happening this 22nd April," the student organisers wrote to him.

Pua was the only opposition politician invited to speak at the event, though a couple of prominent activists are also in the line-up.

They are Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh, who headed the Abolish ISA and Malaysians for Free and Fair Elections (Mafrel) movements and a former research officer at Selangor Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim's office, Tricia Yeoh, who is now chief executive of think-tank IDEAS.