KUALA LUMPUR, April 30 — Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Paul Low said today that he was disappointed with the International Islamic University Malaysia’s (UIA) last minute cancellation of a debate on moderation scheduled for yesterday.

He told news portal MalaysiaKini that the university should have allowed the event to take place, and should not have cancelled, regardless of the reasons.

“I don’t think the university did the right thing by disallowing the event. A university should be open for a debate like this.



”I am disappointed with the decision of UIA.

"For whatever reason. Obviously this (forum) is not about politics, but a debate on moderation,” he was quoted as saying.



The former Transparency International Malaysia chief said it is only expected that a debate should include people of different views “from whatever party”.



Low said the topic is of public interest, and he plans to participate in the debate which the Global Movement of Moderates (GMM) has offered to host at a later date.

Just two hours before the event was scheduled to begin yesterday, the British High Commission, which was co-organising the event with the University of Nottingham, announced the decision by venue host IIUM to cancel the debate.

In a brief statement to the media that was also posted on its Facebook page, the commission said that UIA was “unable to host the event as initially planned”.

After apologising for the inconvenience, it then directed all media queries on the matter to the university.

According to University of Nottingham’s School of Politics, History and International Relations campus head Michael Connors, the event was called off because of PKR’s Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad’s involvement.

Connors told Malaysiakini in an email that IIUM’s “senior management” did not approve of the PKR Youth chief’s role as a panellist in the debate.

Apart from Low and Nik Nazmi, “The Great Debate Series 2 — Everything in Moderation: Ways of Living Together” was to feature lawyer Firdaus Husni, Emeritus Professor Datuk Dr Shad Saleem, Niki Cheong and Professor Dr Ahmad Yousif as panel speakers.

BFM radio’s presenter, Ahmad Fuad Rahmat was supposed to be the moderator and British High Commissioner Vicki Treadell was also supposed to give an introduction speech.

The university’s media relations officer could not be reached this morning.