Don't 'run away', attend Rome Statute forum: Student activist dares academics

Student activist Asheeq Ali Sethi Alivi has challenged the four academics, who co-authored a paper which purportedly convinced the Conference of Rulers to reject the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), to attend a forum on the matter.

He said the four must be bold in defending their arguments.

“I urge them to attend as panellists to engage in a healthy discussion, answer questions from the audience and to defend themselves.

“I call on them to muster the courage to defend what they presented to the rulers. Don't run away and hide behind politicians who want to confuse the people. Be professional,” he told Malaysiakini.

Asheeq is the spokesperson for a group of student activists who leaked the executive summary of the paper and accused the four academics of being biased in their argument.

The group is also organising tomorrow's forum at Universiti Malaya, which would feature Attorney-General Tommy Thomas as one of the panellists.

Asheeq noted that since the group leaked the executive summary, the four academics have remained tightlipped.

Earlier, he told Malaysiakini that two of them had rejected the invitation to attend the forum whereas two more have not responded.

"The two who rejected are International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) law professor Shamrahayu Abdul Aziz and Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (Usim) law lecturer Fareed Mohd Hassan.

"The two who have not responded are Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) law professor Rahmat Mohamad and Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (Usim) law lecturer Hisham Hanapi," he said.

No formal invitation for crown prince

Asheeq said apart from Thomas and himself, others who would be speaking at the forum are constitutional expert Shad Saleem Faruqi, Noor Farida Ariffin of G25 and lawyer Lim Wei Jiet.

The student activist also clarified there were no formal attempts to invite Johor crown prince Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim to the forum despite the group earlier welcoming his attendance on the grounds that the prince was also “confused” about the Rome Statute.

"At that time I was just responding to a question from a reporter... maybe there can be another engagement (with the Johor palace) after the forum," he said.

Tunku Ismail was one of the vocal opponents of the Rome Statute, arguing that it would threaten the position of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced that Malaysia would withdraw from the Rome Statute.

Yesterday, the attorney-general dismissed the allegation that he had failed to convince the rulers regarding the Rome Statute.

Thomas and Shad Saleem had presented a working paper to the Conference of Rulers on behalf of the government. - Mkini