Curtin University stands by Rosmah’s award

Australia's Curtin University has defended honouring Rosmah with a honorary doctorate, despite the public uproar against it.

PETALING JAYA: Curtin University has defended its honouring of Rosmah Mansor – the Prime Minister’s wife- with its Doctor of Letters degree.

According to its Vice-Chancellor Jeanette Hacket, the Perth-based university in Australia said that nominees to Curtin’s awards – including Rosmah’s – were “considered on their own merits”.

According to her, the flak arising from the awarding of the doctorate to Rosmah on Feb 11 did not change Curtin’s opinion of the PM’s wife.

“We acknowledge that there are a range of views on this award, but the University stands by its decision to grant the honorary doctorate,” Hacket said in a Facebook statement.

She added however that Curtin would no longer refer to Rosmah as Malaysia’s “First Lady”, and would change its media statements accordingly.

“The University accepts that the decision to make this award has attracted criticism. We also accept that our use of the term ‘First Lady’ has offended some people, and apologise for this.”

“We will no longer use that term,” Hacket said.

The Vice-Chancellor said that Curtin recognised Rosmah for her efforts behind the more than 600 Permata Negara early childhood centres, which Hacket said reached “tens of thousands of children”.

Public uproar

Public uproar erupted earlier this week when Rosmah was conferred with the Australian degree. Many Malaysians did not appear to accept Curtin’s explanation, lashing out over Facebook.

Edmund Yong said: “Obviously your standards aren’t so high after all. What was the basis and motivation for the award? This certainly reflects a lack of integrity and honour. Thumbs down to Curtin!”

To Curtin, Mohd Arif Juhani said: “I just clicked ‘like’ on your page. How many years should I wait to get Master or PhD?”

Andrew Ooi said: “I’m really thankful I didn’t graduate from Curtin, otherwise I would be looking for the deepest hole to crawl into right now.”

Rosmah has been thrust into the limelight over her alleged excesses on personal items, including the furore over the purported RM73-million ring.

Her brainchild, the Permata Negara childhood centres, was also not exempt from criticism.

According to a previous FMT report, many “inconsistencies” were seen in the setting up of the centres.

Sarawak PKR also criticised Permata for not showing any results in the East Malaysian state. Women NGOs and the indigenous Penan community, according to them, were also allegedly ignored by Rosmah.

Rosmah has since accused her critics of being petty and jealous of her achievements.