KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 — Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) has sacked the lecturer who was at the centre of a controversy over its Islamic and Asian Civilisation Studies (TITAS) module last month, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh disclosed today.
Idris said his ministry did not issue a directive, but the public university decided to terminate the contract of the lecturer who had prepared the slides that had portrayed Hindus as “dirty” and misrepresented the history of Sikhism, sparking uproar from the two religious communities.
“They are autonomous at the moment. They hired the lecturer and they have the right to fire. I was told yesterday that he has been fired,” he told radio channel BFM in its The Breakfast Grille programme.
Earlier, Idris said the lecturer teaching TITAS module had gone beyond the ministry’s curriculum.
“TITAS is required but what happened in UTM is he went out of the way. He’s not using the curriculum provided by the ministry. But we are serious about it… that lecturer has been fired.
“We are serious about it. We have to take stringent action against it,” he added.
Last month, UTM vice-chancellor Professor Datuk Dr Wahid Omar apologised and pledged a thorough investigation into the “isolated incident” where leaked slides painted Hindus as revering dirt on their bodies, and claimed that Sikhism borrowed elements from Islam.
On June 27, Wahid reportedly said an independent panel of TITAS experts had unanimously found that there were too many factual errors in the slides prepared by the UTM contract lecturer, with the material also containing “too many judgmental elements” that were not in line with the TITAS course’s intention of promoting harmony and understanding in Malaysia.
Wahid said a committee looking into the TITAS slides case had recommended the recall of the TITAS textbook published and used by UTM. The committee instead recommended the use of TITAS teaching materials that have been recognised by the Higher Education Ministry.
Among other things, the committee proposed training for UTM’s TITAS lecturers by experts on Indian and Chinese civilisations before they teach those topics, suggesting that the university use multiracial lecturers that have expertise in these TITAS topics to teach students.
It also proposed that UTM organise talks on the different civilisations and different religions with the relevant experts to be invited.
He had then said that UTM was in the process of taking action against the lecturer.
The Higher Education Ministry had on June 23 strongly condemned the incident, stressing the role of higher education to promote unity and understanding in multiracial Malaysia.
The TITAS module was made mandatory for all tertiary students regardless of religion in 2013.
