Paying a heavy price for the endless blunders

Dr Maszlee Malik was not listening hard enough to his boss. In fact, he chose to ignore comments made by the Prime Minister about how the schools ought to be run and did it his way. Thus the fiascos.

THE writing was already on the wall. With mounting criticism, it was only a matter of time that Dr Maszlee Malik would no longer be tenable as the Education Minister.

His decision to step down from the Cabinet post was merely a face-saving gesture. It is well known that he was asked to step down, as even the Prime Minister found it impossible to defend him.

There was no end to the fiascos caused by him. He is the only Pakatan Harapan minister to have a petition mounted against him to be removed.

The former International Islamic University lecturer became the first Pakatan minister to resign following his announcement yesterday.

Until May, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was still defending Maszlee, as he fended off criticisms linking Maszlee with the matriculation quota intake issue with that of language requirements for jobs.

Dr Mahathir had then said that he had no problem with Maszlee since the latter only took over the education portfolio.

“I don’t see any problem with him, except for the controversial ‘black shoes’ ruling for schoolchildren.

“Just because he recently talked about race, it does not mean that he was being racist. He should stay (as minister), ” he had told a press conference back then.

Dr Mahathir made those comments when asked about a recent online petition calling for Maszlee to be removed from the position.

Maszlee had defended the matriculation programme’s preference for Bumiputra students, saying that those calling for the pre-university course to be opened to other races should also address the unfair job market dominated by a particular race.

In his resignation statement yesterday, Maszlee said he was prepared for the many controversies of the ministry – which has always been political – the day he took on the responsibility as its minister in 2018.

While previous education ministers were seasoned politicians or senior university vice-chancellors, the reality is that he was merely a low-ranked lecturer without even the administrative experience of heading a department or a faculty.

How he had caught the attention of Dr Mahathir to be picked as a minister to helm such an important ministry remains a mystery to many.

The Simpang Renggam MP was just serving his first term as a law maker and there were doubts, even from day one, if the job was too big for him.

In the past, the Education Minister’s post was regarded as a stepping stone for bigger positions.

It isn’t clear if Maszlee was an afterthought because on May 17,2018, Dr Mahathir himself had announced that he would be in charge of the Education Ministry.

With his trademark sarcasm, Dr Mahathir said he would take over the education portfolio because many people were uneducated, and that he needed to give his attention to it.

He said Malaysia’s way of teaching was “outdated” and he hoped that more Malaysians would be more computer-savvy.

“We should devise new ways of teaching, ” said Dr Mahathir, adding that he would introduce an online software to teach students in schools.

He said there would only be one ministry in charge of all matters regarding education.

Subsequently, Dr Mahathir said he had to let go of the Education Ministry portfolio to honour Pakatan’s election manifesto pledge.

But Dr Mahathir was spot on. He knew that the country needed engineers and those who had digital skills, and certainly we needed someone with science background.

The world has evolved and those with an arts background were not going to bring our children forward to prepare them for a world of artificial intelligence, coding and robotics.

But Dr Mahathir instead chose a lecturer in religion, which seemed to contradict what he was pushing for.

By December, the PM had complained that Malaysia’s national school curriculum needed to be overhauled, as Islamic subjects were given heavy emphasis now rather than getting students to master subjects, such as the English language, that could land them good jobs later.

“They are all learning about the religion of Islam and not learning anything else, ” Dr Mahathir said on Dec 21,2018.

“As a result, those who pass in schools are not very conversant with subjects that are useful for them to get jobs, but they are very good ulama (Muslim clerics).”

A year on, Maszlee was still not listening.

At a time when we know our students have been over-burdened with work, the Education Minister was introducing and piling schools with curriculum that has been questioned.

These subjects have become hot political potatoes for nothing, creating racial ill will, and all because Maszlee thought we needed it, when others thought otherwise.

If that was not enough, the ministry allowed a non-governmental organisation to carry out religious propagation in schools, and then went into damage control mode, saying that it did not involve vernacular and missionary schools.

The Education Ministry had to refute that its approval to allow Yayasan Dakwah Islamiah Malaysia (Yadim) to carry out religious propagation activities in schools and institution of higher learnings was an Islamisation move.

The ministry said the setting up of Rakan Siswa Yadim was still subjected to permission from the respective institutions and schools and would be limited to Muslim students who want to volunteer.

“The Education Ministry would like to stress that this is not Islamisation and does not involve non-Muslim students as well as SJK(C), SJK(T) and missionary schools, ” the ministry had said.

In simple language, Maszlee was not listening hard enough to his boss. Dr Mahathir was saying that there was too much religion in schools and Maszlee seemed to further promote it.

Now, as we move on, there are few options, to have Dr Mahathir himself take on that job and clean up our schools to be competitive again.

Schools should be for learning and nothing else, and only he has the gumption to put things right.

With so many inexperienced political leaders around, picking the right candidate can be a daunting task.

Or can the MP for Jeli, Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamad, who was Minister for Higher Education, take on the role. The experienced hand is said to be considered for the post. - Star