Viral screencap on Perdana fellow was fabricated, says Zafrul's officer

The Investment, Trade and Industry Ministry has denied that a Perdana fellowship scholar - who presented a false certificate to join the programme - is still attached to the ministry.

This comes after a purported screenshot of WhatsApp messages between the scholar and a special officer to Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz had gone viral on social media.

The shared image, which appeared to have been posted on Instagram, claimed that the scholar was told to “carry out” his duties as usual and a recent press statement issued on his fake certificate case was “only to keep the public quiet”.

“The Youth and Sports Ministry has dropped the individual (from the fellowship programme) and he is no longer attached to the ministry,” a ministry spokesperson said in response to a Malaysiakini query on the allegation.

Suria Zainal, the officer implicated in the viral image had since shot down the screenshot as fabricated and reportedly said that she would lodge a police report.

“Hello, could you please delete this post as the screenshot message that was put up was fabricated. Please delete my profile from your post ASAP. Thank you,” she posted on Twitter, in reply to a netizen who posted the purported screenshot.

Suria also told an online news portal that she would lodge a police report on the matter.

“I’m filing a police report on this,” she said, as quoted by The Scoop.

False info

Last week, it was reported that a Perdana fellowship scholar stationed at the ministry has been terminated from the programme for allegedly falsifying information about his achievements.

In a statement, the Youth and Sports Ministry announced that the individual had presented a false certificate for one of the achievements he listed during the application to the programme.

It is learnt that the same individual went viral on Twitter in 2020, now renamed X, after announcing that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) had offered him a scholarship to study at the National University in Singapore.

His announcement even received congratulatory messages from then-prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, former higher education minister Noraini Ahmad, and former science, technology and innovation minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

However, after courting criticism from netizens for discrepancies in his story, he claimed that he was scammed.