Resign if you're not with us, Maszlee tells public varsity administrators

Yasmin Ramlan Yasmin Ramlan Updated 7 years ago · Published on 1 Aug 2018 4:55PM · 3 Comments

PUBLIC university administrators in cahoots with Barisan Nasional leaders to sabotage the education reform agenda should resign before the government removes them, said Dr Maszlee Malik.

The education minister said there are reports of top university officials being in direct contact with former ministers and officials from BN.

“I’m not certain, but it is said that there are some who are actively involved with BN, and it’s obvious they are still communicating with the former ministers and BN leaders, proving that they are involved with (the leaders),” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby today.

“I have given them the option of resigning, without me having to take action, if they feel they cannot fulfil the reform agenda, or joining us in working towards a change in public universities, to complete the agenda of change.”

It was reported yesterday that the ministry issued termination letters to the chairmen of five public universities, as Putrajaya continues to cull controversial appointees to university boards.

Maszlee, who did not reveal the number of corrupted public university officials, said there are many individuals who are qualified and committed to improving the quality of education.

“There are many more VCs (vice-chancellors) who are professionals. Many of them have had their services extended, and they are not political,” said the Simpang Renggam MP.

“But, there are reports that some were very active in the 14th general election, campaigning for BN and being involved in efforts to remove or take action against university staff seen to be not in line with them (BN). There are many such reports.

“We find that they are unable to support the agenda to reform public universities.”

His decision to sack the five chairmen has been hailed by academics as a positive step towards revamping the nation’s education system.

Maszlee in June said vice-chancellors and deputy vice-chancellors of public universities who rooted for BN in GE14 would be asked to resign.

He had said this was in keeping with the Pakatan Harapan policy of removing political appointees and replacing them with qualified people. – August 1, 2018.

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Comments

  • Right move Mr Minister

    Posted 7 years ago by Sabah One · Reply

  • We have a national spy agency with vested interest in keeping a certain political party in power and we have vice chancellors who are more interested in partisan politics than education. Well, walls have ears. These people should not complain when they have to face the consequence of their less than professional conducts whilst being paid by tax payers.

    Posted 7 years ago by Roger 5201 · Reply

  • Title is not correct. He asked if they were not willing to implement government policies to resign. That is not the same as asking for them to support the government. Privately anyone be a member of a political party but party politics should not influence their work. Difficult concept for ordinary people to understand but I think VCs should be intelligent enough to grasp the principle.

    Posted 7 years ago by Malaysia New hope · Reply