Sabah boss defends Muhyiddin
Published on: Saturday, May 23, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: The State Education Department has rallied to the defence of Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who has been accused by his former Deputy Education Minister Dr Puad Zakarshi of shirking from his duties as Education Minister. Director Datuk Jame Alip said the photograph used by Puad to illustrate the deplorable condition of a classroom in Keningau does not reflect the true conditions of the school. He said the photo was an isolated case and a stark contrast from even other classrooms in the same school.
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"It's an isolated case and the issue has been addressed," he said via WhatsApp, on Friday, and forwarded several pictures of other classrooms said to be from the school. The photo in question appeared to be broken desks for students and had been used by Dr Puad on Thursday, to accuse Muhyiddin in Facebook as being lazy to check on the deplorable conditions of some of the schools in the country. Dr Puad alleged that because Muhyiddin did not visit schools, the local officers also followed suit. "Why didn't they visit? Because the Minister and Deputy Minister are lazy to come down," he said."When the TPM (DPM) has been the Education Minister for almost two terms, he should have ensured that the rural schools, especially in the interior of Sabah and Sarawak, are taken care of," he added.
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Muhyiddin is assisted by Education Minister II Idris Jusoh, and two deputies Mary Yap and P. Kamalanathan.Puad's comments came after a video of Muhyiddin calling for the entire 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) board to be sacked made the rounds online. Muhyiddin later said he stood by his remarks against 1MDB.
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"Go to the ground! Don't be proud of the Education Blueprint if the playing field levels are not the same," he said.Puad, who is the Jasa Director-General, also mentioned the ineffectiveness of the government's RM4.1 billion 1Bestarinet project, which has been widely criticised for not yielding results."The government has spent billions for 1BestariNet but have they investigated its effectiveness?" he asked.The 1BestariNet project involved the installation of 4G high-speed broadband across all schools throughout the country, as well as a virtual learning environment.Puad also said that during his three-year tenure as Deputy Education Minister, he visited some 70pc of rural schools nationwide."There is also a school where I had to walk eight hours to get to, that is a school in Saliliran in Nabawan Sabah," said Puad.When asked by a Facebook user if he was criticising Muhyiddin because he was afraid that the Deputy Prime Minister would take over from besieged Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, leading him to lose his position in Jasa, Puad said he did not mind losing his job."There is no problem if I lost my position. What is the matter with that? Don't lose heart. When I was in the Education Ministry before, I had always spoken up strongly in post-Cabinet meetings," he said.Muhyiddin told an Umno gathering last week that the controversial 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) board should be sacked as it could bring down the government.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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