KUCHING: Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik has come under a sustained barrage of criticisms from Sarawak leaders for his ‘medan dakwah’ or Islamic propagation remark when urging religious teachers from the Peninsula to stay put in Sabah and Sarawak.
The latest criticism came from the Sarawak DAP Socialist Youth (Dapsy) which called on Maszlee to relinquish his Cabinet position with immediate effect.
Its publicity secretary Abdul Aziz Isa said Maszlee’s recent remark in Parliament had been misconstrued to mean promoting Islam to non-Muslims due to his failure to choose his words wisely.
“Dr Maszlee should understand that both Sabah and Sarawak are secular states with no official religion. Such remarks coming from our Education Minister is unbecoming and something that Sabahans and Sarawakians should strongly condemn as it will jeopardise the racial harmony in both states,” he said on Thursday night.
He pointed out that after seven months of becoming the new Education Minister, Dr Maszlee had turned out to be a big disappointment to the public.
“Even those in the teaching profession feel that he is not fit to be the Education Minister .
“Another reason for making this call is because he has failed to deliver Pakatan Harapan’s promises to revamp our education system as well as our education policy.
“For example, firstly, he has failed to deliver the promises PH made to give full recognition to the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) for the independent Chinese schools.
Aziz said that listing down Maszlee’s failures as Education Minister would be a huge embarrassment to the PH government.
“He might as well pack up his things and send a resignation letter to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad,” he said.
