KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 2 — Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) should remove former Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan as its lecturer due to his alleged media illiteracy and alleged perpetuating of lies, DAP MP Lim Kit Siang said today.
Lim said UiTM’s Centre of Media and Information Warfare Studies (CMIWS) should be at the forefront of promoting media literacy in Malaysia to enable Malaysians to tell apart facts from lies and misinformation, amid what he described as an “upsurge of lies, fake news and hate speech” aimed at inciting racial and religious polarisation and conflict in Malaysia.
But Lim questioned how the UiTM unit would have the authority and credibility to play a leading role in promoting media literacy if its “most star-studded lecturer” is allegedly a “poster boy” for media illiteracy and fake news, alluding to Musa in his remarks.
“UiTM should dismiss former Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan as lecturer at its Centre of Media and Information Warfare Studies (CMIWS) if it aspires to be a centre of excellence for its information warfare centre, as the former IGP has become a ‘poster boy’ not only for media illiteracy but also for lies, fake news and hate speech,” the Iskandar Puteri MP said in a statement today.
Lim noted that Musa had displayed media illiteracy by appearing to show last October that he did not know that The Onion website was a satirical news website, following the former top cop’s defence of his remarks over a satirical article revolving around terrorist Osama Bin Laden and the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Lim also highlighted Musa’s recent remarks where the latter allegedly claimed that DAP has an agenda to rewrite history by reviving communist ideology, but said that such an allegation by Musa is “completely baseless, untrue and a total figment of Musa’s imagination”.
Musa had allegedly made the claims during a talk at UiTM.
Lim pointed out that the Malaysian police’s Special Branch is one of the best of its kind in the world, and noted that it had not in the past five decades found any connection tying DAP with the communist movement.
UiTM’s CMIWS website currently lists Musa as its principal lecturer.
