‘Kamarul Zaman, stop the bragging’

It is one thing being a graduate of one of the top five universities in the United States of America, but to earn the highest distinction from a university ranked 54 in the USA ranking 2017 is another thing.

Kamarul Zaman Yusoff defended his qualifications by stating that he achieved a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Political Science and Psychology is seemingly laughable.

Doing a double major does not mean that one is an expert in two subjects instead of one. In fact, if I were to hire a psychologist, I would rather hire one whose only major is psychology.

Indiana University ranked 54

It would be quite different if Kamarul Zaman had said he obtained his doctorate from an Ivy-League university such as Harvard or Princeton. Even these two universities are ranked fourth and fifth in the US, respectively.

That is how competitive university ranking is in the US; therefore, there is nothing much for Kamarul Zaman to boast about being a Bachelor of Arts graduate of Indiana University at Bloomington.

Unlike the California Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard or Princeton, Indiana University is not exactly a high-ranking university.

At the 54th position in the US ranking for 2017, Indiana University is lagging far behind even Purdue University which is within the same state of Indiana, which is ranked 35. Proverbially speaking, Kamarul Zaman is only a big fish swimming in a small pond.

Based on my own research, Kamarul Zaman received his PhD in Political Science from Universiti Malaya. I find it rather amusing when reading his claim that, just because his PhD dissertation was on Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS), he is therefore an ‘expert’ on the Islamic party.

If this is the kind of expert who are teaching at Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), I shake my head in disbelief.

In his curriculum vitae published on the university website, Kamarul Zaman claims that he had published two articles in the Malaysian Journal of Youth Studies; however, his name does not seem to appear on the byline of both articles.

A search on the Institut Penyelidikan Pembangunan Belia Malaysia website also did not yield any of his articles. According to the UUM Repository, most of his articles only appear in Berita Harian and Utusan Malaysia.

He has never published any book or contributed even a chapter to any book or conference proceedings. He had no consultation experience; therefore, I am amazed that he could claim to be an expert.

Only in his individual capacity?

Kamarul Zaman is a ‘senior lecturer’ at UUM. He is not an ordinary man on the street.

When he started accusing Selangor state speaker Hannah Yeoh of having a Christian agenda based on some personal testimonies by Yeoh in her autobiography, ‘Becoming Hannah’, Kamarul Zaman was being quoted as an UUM lecturer.

There is no mistake about it as he did not make those allegations in his personal capacity. Any ordinary person who made those allegations would not carry much weight.

In fact, throughout the articles that appeared before this, Kamarul Zaman never claimed that he was speaking in his individual capacity. Why only now?

It is different if Kamarul Zaman’s allegations were credible, but it was one of the most incredulous accusations hurled against Yeoh. Even lawyer Syahredzan Johan said Kamarul Zaman’s logic is “flawed and his police report malicious”.

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STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.- Mkini