AN acting education minister will stand in for Maszlee Malik, said Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, adding that an announcement on who it is, will be made soon. 

“We did make a decision on that, but let the PM (Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad) announce it,” Lim said after attending the Inland Revenue Board Open Day in Kuala Lumpur today.

On Sunday, Maszlee was asked to quit as education minister because of his failure to heed cabinet directives and for often putting Putrajaya in a difficult position, a letter has revealed.

The 17-paragraph missive, written by Dr Mahathir, said the former International Islamic University Malaysia lecturer did not listen to advice, and on several occasions, went against cabinet decisions.

Last Friday, Maszlee announced his resignation, citing three of his decisions which are perceived to have plunged the Pakatan Harapan government into crisis.

The three decisions he named were for the teaching of Jawi in the vernacular schools, providing the schools with internet access, and the free breakfast programme in school.

Yesterday, Dr Mahathir said Maszlee was not ousted as education minister over any particular issue, but confirmed that he was asked to quit. 

Dr Mahathir said the former education minister is not to be blamed for all the shortcomings in the ministry.

“By now, the letter I wrote to him has been made public by some irresponsible parties. As you can see there are many reasons.

“I’m not saying that he did everything wrong. There are some things that he did which were right but because of these other reasons, I felt that it is necessary for him to resign and he agreed,” he said. – January 8, 2020.