Fair assessment, Maszlee says after Dr M gives cabinet a borderline pass

Education Minister Maszlee Malik today said he accepted Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's one-year assessment of the cabinet, calling it "fair".

This was after Mahathir gave the cabinet five out of 10 marks, or 50 percent, equivalent to a borderline pass in Malaysian examinations.

"As a prime minister who has long experience in the administration, I think the prime minister knows what score to give, especially when it is on the national administration.

"Such performance for the first year, I would consider it to be quite a fair assessment from someone who has such a long experience in government," he told journalists after an Education Ministry staff gathering in Putrajaya today.

Yesterday, Mahathir, in a special media interview, gave his cabinet a score of five out of 10 when asked about its performance since coming to power on May 9 last year.

Mahathir had said the ministers, almost all of whom are new, were learning the ropes and he defended them, stating they were fast learners and that there would not be a cabinet reshuffle.

On a separate matter, Maszlee was asked to respond to Mahathir's statement that the matriculation system was a "backdoor" for the Malays to enter public universities.

Maszlee said Mahathir was only giving the background on the inception of the matriculation programme.

"It was to increase the number of bumiputera students in the science streams at public universities because there was a lack of bumiputera participation in the science field and in science-related jobs," he said. - Mkini