“PM should seriously consider to appoint a new education minister!” Michael Tiang

suppadmin | December 20, 2018

In response to Education Minister Maszlee Malik’s recent statement in Parliament appealing to Islamic religious teachers from Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah who are teaching in Sabah and Sarawak not to return to Peninsular Malaya, but urging them to stay in East Malaysia and make Sabah and Sarawak their Islamic propagation field (“medan Dakwah”), Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) Youth Central Chairman Michael Tiang has made his comment in a press release today.

After being appointed as Minister of Education, Dr Maszlee Malik has repeatedly thrown out policy statements that shocked the public, such as the implementation of the black shoes and black socks in schools, encouraging students to use the hotel pool for swimming lessons, and even believe that recognising the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) of Chinese independent secondary schools would affect the unity and harmony among Malaysians, and most recently, he requested publicly in Parliament the Islamic religious teachers from Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah to stay back in Sarawak to render their services and make Sarawak a ‘medan dakwah’. Tiang criticized Maszlee for failing to deliver the duty as the Education Minister to bring forth reforms to national education structures and to resolve dilapidated schools issues; instead, being an education minster Maszlee focused on propagating Islamization!

Although Islam is the official religion for the Federation of Malaysia, Sarawak does not have any official religion. Sarawak has been advocating religious freedom since 1841 whereas the religions practiced by all ethnic groups had been, are presently and will be ensured of developing and growth.

This was the very reason why the late chief minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem insisted 99% teachers in Sarawak must be of local Sarawakians. After all, only Sarawakians can truly comprehend Sarawak’s social culture and promote Sarawak’s educational model according to Sarawakians’ aspiration.

“I am worried about the current development of our national education. The Education Minister Maszlee’s remarks in Parliament on the 11th of this month to urge the religious teachers to turn Sarawak and Sabah into their Islamic propagation field was absolutely outrageous! This shows the Minister cannot grasp the East Malaysia cultures and sentiment, and worse still, the Minister failed to respect Sarawakians’ emphasis on religious freedom. He even attempted to disturb the same!”

“From Mr. Malik’s performance and remarks in the past few months, especially in respect of Sarawak’s educational needs, Maszlee is incompetent and unfit to serve as Education Minister for all. Therefore, I appeal to Prime Minister Tun Mahathir to remove Maszlee from his office and replace with a more capable and mature Education Minister!

“At the same time, I am also very puzzled as to the silence among our 12 fellow Sarawakians MP from PH. When Maszlee put forward the “medan dakwah” remarks in the Parliament, where were the challenge from the 12? It’s been more than a week since the speech was publicized, the leaders from Pakatan Harapan (PH) Sarawak, especially DAP remain silent inside and outside parliament. How can they represent Sarawak in defending Sarawak’s rights and interests?