By Lian Cheng
KUCHING, May 20: State Reform Party (STAR) says Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malek should have resigned a long time ago.
Described him as “clueless” of what is going on in Malaysia’s education, STAR president Lina Soo said Maszlee had forgotten his duty to be an education minister for all races.
“In more than one year, he (Maszlee) has not produced one education policy worth mentioning.
“The longer he stays the more he jeopardises the future of our children, who need a sound education to be worthy citizens in the future.
“He forgets that he has to be an education minister for all races,” Soo told DayakDaily, when contacted today.
Maszlee had recently been quoted as saying that the government would only consider removing quotas for university matriculation intakes if the private sector started to employ non-Bumiputera who could not speak Mandarin.
Maszlee’s statement not only resulted in him being lambasted by the national opposition coalition but also by his coalition colleagues in DAP as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and political observers.
There are even calls for him to step down or be removed as Education Minister.
Meanwhile, following Maszlee’s statement that drew flak from different fronts, Rural Development Minister Rina Harun came forth to give her support to Maszlee.
Rina was quoted by Berita Harian as stating it was not necessary for Maszlee to apologise or step down for his statement, in which he linked matriculation entry quotas to job opportunities in the private sector.
Rina stressed this was because what Maszlee said was based on facts.
She said as Minister of Education, Maszlee knew the issue and before he made the statement, he must have information to support his statement.
“He had also done a study at ministry level to resolve the issue of matriculation quota,” Rina was quoted as saying. — DayakDaily
