BUTTERWORTH, June 12 — The federal government wants to expand the role of the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) in efforts to enhance the country’s dignity and status, says Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Anwar said he had met with Jakim’s leadership recently and wanted them to help draft a national development policy framework based on Malaysia Madani.
“Previously, Jakim’s work was to preach, provide training and organise Quran recitation and memorisation competitions with the respective state governments, but Jakim played less of a role in drafting the 12th Malaysia Plan and Madani budget.
“I have instructed that the role of the muftis, scholars or figures in Jakim should be in line with this development so that their input can be beneficial and can raise the dignity and status of the country,” he said in a speech at the 1444H/2023 National Recitation and Al-Quran Memorisation Competition, here, last night.
Penang is hosting the national-level competition this year, which is scheduled to take place over six days until June 16.
Meanwhile, Anwar invited Muslims to take advantage of the miracles of the Quran by discussing sustainability and the value system it advocates.
He added that certain individuals had objected to the government’s initiatives, including the Madani budget, by making inaccurate references to verses in the Quran.
He said the act of misusing the Quran to make arguments would damage the sanctity of the holy book that scholars have defended for over a thousand years.
Earlier in GEORGE TOWN, Anwar said the Public Service Department (PSD) will continue to offer scholarships for students pursuing studies in medicine, dentistry and pharmacy.
“Since last week, I have held a special meeting with PSD and they said that (stopping sponsorship) is an existing policy, a previous policy.
“So, I asked for this to be reviewed (because) based on our projections, the need for medical, dental and pharmacy sectors is still there.
“This means that the PSD scholarship programme for these sectors will continue,” he said at the Temu Anwar@USM programme at Dewan Tuanku Syed Putra, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) yesterday.
He was replying to a question from one of the participants of the programme, who is also a student, regarding the government’s decision to stop providing the scholarships.
It was previously reported that PSD would stop sponsoring students pursuing studies in medicine, dentistry and pharmacy following a study by the Health Ministry pertaining to the oversupply of medical officers from 2026 to 2030.
Meanwhile, Anwar said the issue of contract doctors is expected to be resolved in less than three years.
“The problem of contract doctors is indeed a long-standing problem and it is not fair for them. Therefore, we have started (the absorption to permanent positions) from this year.
“Why can’t we solve everything this year? Because it requires billions of ringgit, but I expect it can be solved in less than three years,” he said.
— Bernama
