Explain UM blocking 'Secular/Religious' forum, Zaid tells ministry

Summary

• Zaid Ibrahim asks the Higher Education Ministry to explain why University Malaya shut down a forum.

• The former law minister says students will benefit from exposure to different views.

• Earlier, a UM student group accused the varsity of suppressing academic freedom by cancelling a forum on “Is Malaysia a secular or religious country?”.

Former law minister Zaid Ibrahim asked the Higher Education Ministry for an explanation on Universiti Malaya shutting down a forum.

He said the forum, titled “Malaysia’s Identity Crisis: Is Malaysia a Secular Country or a Religious Country?”, would have featured constitutional lawyer Malik Imtiaz and human rights activist Siti Kasim, who are both distinguished lawyers.

“The students will benefit from such an exchange between those who are secularists and those who are of the view that the special position of Islam makes it a religious state.

“That’s how we educate our students: by exposing them to different sets of views,” he said in a statement on social media today.

Zaid questioned why UM, a premier university in Malaysia, does not allow its students to hear the views of lawyers on the country’s legal status.

The forum was supposed to be held in UM today, but the University of Malaya Association of New Youth (Umany) claimed that it had been shut down due to 3R (race, religion, and royalty) issues, which could potentially disrupt campus harmony.

Umany said it received instructions from the university administration to cancel the event, but it relocated the forum to be held outside the campus instead.

The event will be held as scheduled at 7.30pm today at the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall.

Umany criticised the decision, saying universities must be spaces for open dialogue and intellectual exploration.

It explained that the forum was prompted by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s speech at the International Malaysia Law Conference in 2023, that Malaysia is neither a secular nor an Islamic theocratic state.

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