SYDNEY: Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim yesterday said he was disgusted at how the Australian government responded after Malaysian students were reportedly warned against attending his talk in Adelaide.
Malaysian students living in Australia were urged not to attend Anwar’s speech on democracy, part of this weekend’s Festival of Ideas, in an email from a student adviser at the Malaysian consulate, the national broadcaster ABC reported.
The Department for Foreign Affairs responded by saying all students in Australia, including Malaysians, “enjoy all rights and liberties available under the Australian law, including the ability to attend a wide variety of legitimate events... The Festival of Ideas in Adelaide is one such event”.
“What is required is to suggest or to indicate that this is wrong, that under Australian laws or in democratic tradition, you cannot condone or tolerate these excesses,” he said.
“If you don’t, if you fail to do this, it seems to be condoning the excesses. And that is my surprise or disgust at the failure of the Australian authorities to do the barest minimum to say ‘please, back off from this sort of instructions in Australia’.”
The controversy erupted after a student adviser at the Malaysian consulate in Sydney reportedly emailed students this week warning of “stern action” if they attended Anwar’s address.
Independent Australian Senator Nick Xenophon also criticised Canberra’s response as “pathetically timid” and “embarrassing” and called on the government to condemn the threats.
AFP
