SOME people just seem to attract all the wrong headlines. One such individual is Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek whose every utterance seems to attract controversy, scrutiny and basically, public opprobrium.
Given the education portfolio is hugely important, perhaps such eye-balling is to be expected but the Nibong Tebal MP’s various pronouncements just seem to explode in her face.
After the recent two-teacher one classroom a.k.a. co-teaching model courted immense controversy, the latest fiasco involves the lawyer-by-training revealing in the Dewan Rakyat that the cost of renovating a single school classroom could balloon past half a million ringgit.
According to the 48-year-old PKR women’s wing chief, the cost of constructing a single classroom has risen sharply over the past decade – spiralling from between RM180,000 and RM250,000 from 2016 to 2020 to between RM280,000 and RM520,000 from 2021 to 2026.
In fact, based on the “As Tendered Detailed Abstract (ATDA)” prepared by the Public Works Department (PWD), the Education Ministry (MOE) said the estimates only covered the cost of building blocks, including classrooms, staircases, corridors and toilets.
Many citizens though have questioned the basis of that extravagant figure, not least rival politicians who must be licking their collective fingers in glee at the continuous fodder which the Education Minister is providing them to attack the Madani administration.
“Why is the figure quoted equivalent to a house purchase price?” wondered Pahang MCA Pahang Youth chief Wong Siew Mun in a TikTok video.
“With RM280,000, we can already purchase an affordable home from the government’s housing scheme … In fact, RM520,000 is sufficient to buy a house in many places (in city outskirt) whereby a family can live for years.”
@wongsiewmun7 buat 1 kelas kena RM520k, korang percaya ke? Ni wang rakyat
P/s:baru perasan a slip of tongue, sepatutnya bina baru ye, bukan baikpulih #WongSiewMun #TanyaJer #RakyatBersuara #TeamRakyat
The 35-year-old went on to express surprise that this sum was not to build a new school or an entire block but merely to construct a single classroom.
Ridiculed left, right & centre
Wong’s colleagues in MCA Selangor were similarly scathing, asking just how and where did the Education Minister pluck this extravagant figure from.
In a Facebook post, Petaling Jaya Division vice-chairman Lim Han Boon has called on the Education Ministry to explain why a single classroom, equipped only with basic teaching facilities and measuring roughly 90 sq metres can cost up to RM520,000 to build.
“This is a figure comparable to a Rumah Selangorku affordable housing unit of similar size which is priced between RM100,000 and RM300,000,” jibed Lim.
The far more caustic Coverage Media had some choice words for the under-fire minister by asking:
What is this madness? Education Minister Fadhilina Sidek casually drops that building one ordinary classroom costs a whopping RM520,000 – and that’s excluding furniture!
We’re talking about a space that’s maybe 500 sq ft at most. Do the math: that’s over RM1,000 per sq ft. Is this classroom made of solid gold?
Or perhaps lined with diamonds and equipped with invisible force fields? Because at that price, it better come with a lifetime supply of straight-A students and zero maintenance.
For context, RM520,000 could snag you a high-end premium condo in some prime locations like KL (Kuala Lumpur) or Penang.
Man-on-the-street Malaysians, too, had a field day ridiculing if such inflated figures were proof that Fadhlina was incapable of managing this vital portfolio.
Netizen Dylan Chong surmised that “she may be good in other area of work but definitely not (taking charge of the) Education Ministry. RM520K for a classroom is not acceptable unless the class comes with a golden toilet.”
The damning verdict?
“This Minister cannot decide on policy, confused the parents, flip flopping.”
It must be noted that every Prime Minister (except Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob) had served as Education Minister on the way to the top job.
The manner in which Fadhilina is handling her portfolio would suggest she is not going to be following suit given the harsh feedback on her tenure thus far.
More pertinently, given that her declarations have become a rod to beat the Madani administration, how long more will the former activist remain in her post (the much-anticipated forecast of she being dropped during the recent Cabinet reshuffle exercise did not materialise)?
Only time will tell. – Focus Malaysia
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