MASZLEE Malik was asked to quit as education minister because of his failure to heed cabinet directives and for often putting Putrajaya in a difficult position, a letter has revealed.
The 17-paragraph missive, written by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, said the former International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) lecturer did not listen to advice, and on several occasions, went against cabinet decisions.
It was sent to Maszlee’s office on December 27 last year, when he was holidaying with his family in the US.
The letter, which was sighted by The Malaysian Insight, noted that Maszlee had particularly failed to follow advice on the Jawi issue, free internet service for schools and free breakfast programme for pupils.
It pointed out that he did not want to split the education and higher education portfolios, too.
The letter ended with Dr Mahathir saying it had come to the point where it was better for Maszlee to resign.
“It is now time for Yang Berhormat (Maszlee) to withdraw from the cabinet.”
Maszlee’s problems with the cabinet began when he was appointed as IIUM president in September 2018.
Although the decision was warmly received by the varsity, critics said there was a conflict of interest as Maszlee was also education minister.
The appointment was also against Pakatan Harapan’s manifesto vow to free public institutions of higher learning from politics.
Despite repeated calls by Dr Mahathir and his cabinet peers to relinquish the university post, Maszlee stood his ground.
Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin was then forced to tell fellow party man Maszlee to “resign as IIUM president immediately” on November 12 that year, as the matter had been decided by the cabinet.
Finally, on January 6 last year, he confirmed his resignation from the position.
On the plan to introduce Jawi lessons in vernacular schools, which was proposed by the previous government in 2015, Maszlee’s decision to go ahead with it was badly received by Chinese and Tamil education groups.
Their opposition elicited hostility from Malay pressure groups, which viewed it as a rejection of the Arabic script and an affront to Malay culture and history.
This resulted in the Malay groups calling for vernacular schools to be shut down, and the Chinese educationists leading the charge against the teaching of Jawi in such schools becoming the target of threats.
On Thursday, Maszlee announced that he would step down as education minister, effective the following day. Listing his achievements, he said the media had not highlighted them, preferring sensational stories instead.
THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT
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