KUALA LUMPUR – Whilst furor ablazed over embattled Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik over his recent appointment as the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) president, some parties felt that credit must be given where it’s due.
After constantly being criticized by numerous parties from all corners, another fellow scholar had risen up to defend Maszlee by telling his critics to ‘move on’ and ‘get a life’ rather than fixating themselves on the Simpang Renggam MP.
“Move on you guys, get a life. You are just finding excuses to throw bricks at Maszlee Malik,” said Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Prof Dr Awaluddin Mohd Shaharoun in a lengthy heartfelt Facebook posting.
In defending Maszlee, Awaluddin had applauded the former who still managed to travel to Sarawak for a work visit to schools in rural areas despite the escalating controversies surrounding his appointment.
The Engineering and Technology lecturer expressed disappointment over the lack of media coverage on Maszlee’s Sarawak visit compared to the sensationalized IIUM appointment, despite the earlier issue being more vital towards the future development of the national education system.
“This to me is more important, more critical to our country’s future and more newsworthy than taking up a no allowance honorary post as president of a university with all the bricks being thrown in his way by ungrateful and blinkered critics braying to taste his blood.”
“Yet his visit to Sarawak barely made the headlines. This is what I fail to understand. What is happening to this beloved country of ours? We amplify and glorify controversy and never appreciate real change even when it is about to happen,” he said.
Awaluddin said that Maszlee was the first Education Minister who truly adopts a low key hands-on approach in witnessing first-hand what can be done to improve the education standards of rural schools, minus the fancy treatments.
“No flowers, specially choreographed children shows, (or) special lunch to greet him. Just the grim reality of inspecting weather beaten and leaking roofs, termite-eaten classrooms, smelly toilets, longhouse standard teacher living quarters and what not,” he said.
Despite lesser coverage, Maszlee had been updating his Facebook continuously throughout his trip to Sarawak schools, where he was seen inspecting the poor living conditions of the schools.
It was reported that his ministry has already set aside RM2.7 billion under the 11th Malaysia Plan (11MP) for fixing schools and building new ones, until 2020 on top of proposing additional funds to fix schools and teacher’s quarters for Budget 2019.
Awaluddin was the latest prominent figure to defend Maszlee’s appointment, after Pahang Ruler Sultan Ahmad Shah, IIUM Rector Prof Dzulkifli Abdul Razak, academician and CEO of the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS) Malaysia Mohammad Hashim Kamali, as well as countless other scholars.
Maszlee’s appointment as the 7th President of IIUM, replacing Rais Yatim had drawn criticism from netizens, student groups, opposition leaders as well as leaders within Pakatan Harapan coalition itself, fearing that it will generate conflict of interest.
Maszlee, a former lecturer of IIUM, became the third education minister to assume the president’s post since the university’s establishment.
Its first president was Hussein Onn, followed by Anwar Ibrahim when he was the education minister in the 1980s, who was then succeeded by Najib Razak in 1998 who was then the education minister.
“By following past precedent, the poor guy (Maszlee) had to take up the post and now faced the bullets from his critics who never seem to be satisfied with all explanations,” said Awaluddin.
