UNFAZED by Umno-BN bid to shut him out, Tony to speak to Malaysian students at alternative forum

After being dropped from the Malaysia Summit Australia (MASA) conference, DAP lawmaker Tony Pua will now address Malaysian students in Melbourne at an alternative forum organised by a non-governmental organisation today.

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP will take the podium this evening at Melbourne's Multi Cultural Hub where he will speak on corruption and socio-politico affairs, two weeks after he was told he was dropped from the MASA conference, which began yesterday.

He is scheduled to speak from 4pm to 7pm (Melbourne time).

Today's event is organised by the Australian chapter of Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia (SABM).

Pua was told earlier that his invitation from the MASA conference had to be withdrawn as the main sponsors of the event felt “it was not in the best interest of everyone” to have him in the line-up of panellists.

The panellists included Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin and Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir, daughter of Malaysia's former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who will speak on the topic “Vision 2020: reality or just a dream?”

Pua will be accompanied by anti-graft watchdog Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (4Cs) co-founder and human rights activist Cynthia Gabriel.

The same event will also see a fund-raising event for DAP's Impian Sabah and Sarawak, aimed at improving the lives of the rural communities in the two states.

"Since I was making the trip Down Under, I sounded out the Malaysian NGOs at various cities if they would be interested to organise forums/talks and hold a mini-fund-raising event for Impian projects," he said in a short email reply to The Malaysian Insider yesterday.

SABM president Praveen Nagappan said they planned to invite Pua to their forum before the popular two-term MP was dropped from the MASA event.

"The turn of events resulted in us changing the format and agenda of the forum, shifting our focus to allow students to participate freely," he said in an email to The Malaysian Insider.

He added that "members of the establishment” would also be in attendance but did not disclose who they were.

The MASA conference's decision to dump Pua appears to have only added to his allure among the student fraternity in Australia.

‎Pua was in Sydney on Monday to address a student group while today, he was a panellist at a forum organised by the Malaysian Students’ Organisation of Canberra's Australia National University.

Pua was told by MASA that he was no longer welcome to participate in its forum, just a week after Universiti Malaya refused to allow prominent lawyer Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan to speak at a law convention in Kuala Lumpur.

Pua was told an invitation by Malaysian students for him to speak at the MASA conference had been retracted, as the main sponsors felt “it was not in the best interest of everyone” to have him in the line-up of panellists.

Among the event's sponsors are Shell Malaysia, Astro, Education Malaysia Australia, Ayam Brand, Malaysian Australian Alumni Council and Kelab Umno Australia.

In a letter to Pua, student organisers Malaysia Students Council of Australia had said: "Despite our best efforts to convince them otherwise, our main sponsors strongly feel that it was not in the best interest of everyone to have you in the line-up of panellists."

Pua had said on his Facebook page that he did not blame the Malaysia Students Council of Australia for the cancellation.

"It is clearly our government sponsors who were intent on closing the minds of our students, so frightened of an opposition leader's one hour presence in a four-day event," he had said. –TMI