The debate between Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak will be held at the Malaysia Tourism Centre (Matic) in Kuala Lumpur on May 12.

In a statement issued on Friday (May 6), the offices of the two political leaders said the debate would begin at 9pm and would be broadcast live on social media as well as on television channels that would be announced later.

"Both parties hope that this debate will happen smoothly next week," the statement read.

A news portal had reported earlier that four former student leaders had said that the debate should have been allowed to take place at Dewan Tunku Canselor in Universiti Malaya (UM).

The four former UM Students Union presidents said it was inappropriate for the university not to facilitate the debate.

"It is reasonable to suspect that there was interference from 'above' who attempted to prevent it from taking place at Dewan Tunku Canselor.

"Any efforts to frustrate debates and discussions must be considered a regressive move which insults the university as a platform for healthy discussions and forum," they were reported as saying by news portal Malaysiakini.

The four former student leaders are Fahmi Zainol (Universiti Malaya Students Association president 2013/2014), Ammar Atan (UM Students Association president 2014/2015), Akmal Hazieq (UM Students Union president 2018/2019) and Haziq Azfar Ishak (UM Students Union president 2019/2020).

The UM Students Union had, in early April, offered to host the debate between Anwar and Najib on the “alleged bailout” of Sapura Energy Bhd.

PKR communications director Fahmi Fadzil, however, later confirmed that UM did not agree to using its venue for the debate.

Source:
courtesy of THE STAR

by R. SEKARAN

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