14 November 2018

Press statement by MCA Youth Chairman Nicole Wong Siaw Ting

Dr Maszlee’s planned skeleton-digging in the Education Ministry must not stop short of Muhyiddin & others

Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik, now a household name, known best for his proposal to changes the colours of school socks and shoes, has now embarked yet on another gratuitous antic. He plans to set up a task force to dig out skeletons left by his predecessors in his Ministry.  

By now, it has come to us all as no surprise that when a Pakatan Harapan Minister is at his wit’s end to come up with a sound policy to prove his worth, he will opt for the easy way out by finding fault with the previous regime; to create a diversion to distract Malaysians’ eyes from the fact that he had contributed not one bit since appointment.

Considering we are under no illusions about Dr Maszlee Malik’s capabilities, a man who sulked like a spoiled child on a national stage when told he cannot hold both posts as Education Minister and IIUM President at the same time, we understand that such distraction tactics are integral to his political career.

However, should Dr Maszlee choose to proceed with spending valuable Education Ministry’s resources on digging out skeletons instead of using them to actually improve our education system, we want to remind that he better do a good, thorough job with it.

The current Home Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, was one of Maszlee’s most direct predecessors. The PPBM President was the Education Minister under Barisan Nasional before getting sacked by Dato’ Sri Najib Razak in 2015. To be thorough in his Education Ministry cleansing job, Dr Maszlee should also probe his other predecessors namely Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim and even Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad.

We urge Dr Maszlee to give his Ministry a diligent scrubbing and discover all the “direct negotiations, and projects and tenders that are non-compliant, which were awarded during the previous administration”. Do not stop short of Muhyiddin; because after all, transparency is paramount in New Malaysia.

So far, what Pakatan Harapan has practised is some form of pseudo transparency, where its politicians and appointees are always most eager to be “transparent” about the faults of the previous regime, but instantly sweep everything under the rug when it comes to their own. For instance, once Tommy Thomas is in office,  the Attorney-General’s Chambers promptly dropped all corruption charges against Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng without having him prove his innocence in court.

Nicole Wong Siaw Ting

MCA Youth Chairman

-MCA online-