KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 7 — Former education minister Maszlee Malik today refuted a news report claiming he was forced to resign after angering the prime minister with an alleged attempt to reopen the Saudi Arabia-backed King Salman Centre for International Peace (KSCIP) here.
Taking to Twitter, Maszlee called the report quoting an anonymous source by news portal Free Malaysia Today “defamation”.
“This is defamation. There was never any discussion about the King Salman Centre for International Peace (KSCIP) when I was education minister. In fact, what does it have to do with the Education Ministry?” he wrote in Malay.
He linked his post to a news report by the portal this morning that alleged “the prime minister was angered when he heard the former education minister was attempting to resuscitate the King Salman Centre for International Peace”, tagging Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s official Twitter account as well as his own.
The minister of 20 months said those curious about the truth could query incumbent Education Ministry staff directly.
“All my work movements, all are recorded in reports. Oh God, give me strength to overcome this defamation. I have no more positions. I am no longer minister. I am only an ordinary citizen,” he wrote.
In a later tweet, he urged the media to verify such information before publication and called on the perpetrators to stop their defamation.
Maszlee was a former lecturer with the International Islamic University of Malaysia before being taking up the education portfolio in 2018, lasting 20 months in that role.
He abruptly resigned on January 2, saying he was “returning” the position to Dr Mahathir.
Maszlee’s brief tenure was dogged by a number of controversies, including switching out white shoes for black as part of school uniforms, the implementation of khat and jawi lessons in national schools, and a free breakfast programme though he had a significant number of supporters for the same policies.
The KSCIP was announced by former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak during Hari Raya in July 2017 after a visit from envoys to the Saudi kingdom. He added that the centre would be built on a 16-acre plot in Putrajaya.
However, the plan was cancelled a year later after Pakatan Harapan defeated Barisan Nasional and took over government.
Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu said on August 6, 2018 that the government has decided to end KSCIP’s operations in the country, with the Malaysia Institute of Defence and Security, an agency under his ministry, to take on the campaign against terrorism.
