KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 — A coalition of Malay-Muslim groups has threatened to protest against Education Minister Maszlee Malik in seven days, should the latter ignore its call to not recognise the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC).

In a statement, Ummah said it has received the support of 10 lawyers to review and take action against Putrajaya’s recognition of the examination in independent Chinese schools.

"We give a warning, if the minister continues to keep mum and be obstinate in defending his stance to recognise UEC, maybe he will be the first minister in the Pakatan Harapan government to face the wave of people’s rising protest in the Education Ministry, Putrajaya,” said Mohd Zai Mustafa, an Ummah secretariat committee member.

As proof of the support they have allegedly received, Mohd Zai said Ummah has received over 20,000 supportive reactions from Facebook users on its page.

"Support was received from national education, language and academic figures, political veterans, NGOs, education sector, and the people,” said Mohd Zai, who is also the chief executive of Islamic Education Development Council Malaysia (Mappim).

Earlier this week, Maszlee was quoted saying the Pakatan Harapan government will stick to its manifesto and recognise the UEC as a legitimate entry requirement for students, pointing to its manifesto pledging to recognise the UEC for entry into public universities.

But the minister said recently that a holistic study was needed before this could be done.

The UEC is the school-leaving certificate issued by independent Chinese-medium schools in Malaysia.

There are about 60 independent Chinese-medium schools in Malaysia, with over 20 of them in East Malaysia.

The UEC is recognised in Singapore but it has limited recognition in Sarawak, Selangor and Penang.