Dr M confirms asking Maszlee to quit, but 'not everything he did was wrong'

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today confirmed that he did ask Maszlee Malik to resign from the cabinet.

However, he said, not everything the former education minister did was wrong.

It was previously reported that a letter purportedly written by Mahathir to Maszlee had revealed that the latter was asked to quit because he failed to heed cabinet directives and often put Putrajaya in a difficult position.

“By now I think the letter made to him (Maszlee) has been made public by some irresponsible people and, as you can see, there are many reasons.

“I’m not saying that he does everything wrong. There are some things which he does which are right, but because of these other reasons, I felt it is necessary for him to resign and he agreed, and so he resigned,” Mahathir said in a press conference at the Prime Minister’s Office in Putrajaya today.

Maszlee had made a shock announcement that he would be stepping down as education minister last Thursday, effective the next day.

Mahathir had also denied that Maszlee's (above) resignation had anything to do with an attempt to reopen the King Salman Centre for International Peace (KSCIP).

"Nothing to do (with KSCIP)," Mahathir said.

Free Malaysia Today had reported earlier today that a source had said that an attempt to reopen the Saudi Arabian-backed centre was the "tipping point" which led to Mahathir asking Maszlee to resign as education minister.

At the press conference today, Mahathir was also asked who will be the acting education minister.

"It will be decided by me because it is my prerogative," he said.

After announcing his resignation last Thursday, Maszlee had said that he was a victim of negative media reports that did not focus on the ministry's many achievements over the past 20 months.

"In the end, I as the education minister was seen to have created many crises for the leadership, such as on Jawi, internet in schools and the free breakfast, among other issues," Maszlee had said.- Mkini