Just hours after Dr Maszlee Malik stepped down as Education Minister yesterday evening (January 2nd 2020), people were already demanding for him to be reinstated!
An online petition titled “ Keep YB Maszlee as Minister of Education Malaysia” at change.org saw people urging Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to reinstate Maszlee as the Education Minister. The petition gained close to 300k signatures in less than 24 hours!
Photo: change.org
Tuan Kenchana, who started the petition representing the voice of the people supporting Maszlee, wants to retain his previous portfolio by highlighting all his past achievements.
“YB Maszlee Malik as Minister of Education Malaysia has sought to improve the quality of education of the country by introducing various initiatives that have proven to be beneficial to students, teachers and the community. The MOE under the leadership of YB has been transparent with all the initiatives and progressives in planning the country's education reform” the petition reads.
With the hashtag #SupportMaszlee, the petition listed all his contribution in his 20 months tenure, which includes the free breakfast and teachers exchange programme, improvement in education for students with disabilities, and the enhancement of TVET programmes.
The petition also highlighted that his resignation is a great loss to the country and unfortunately, all of his initiatives have been overshadowed by negative reports that have been sensationalized by stakeholders seeking personal interest.
An opposite request was made by another online petition that might have sparked talks on his resignation was made a few months ago. The petition titled “We want Maszlee Malik to resign from Education Minister” started by No Hope Malaysia gained 42k signatures over the past 8 months.
Maszlee announced his official resignation yesterday at 4:30pm during a press conference at the Ministry of Education in Putrajaya.
He explained that the decision was made based on the advice of the Prime Minister, and that he remains loyal to the party (Pakatan Harapan) and government leadership.
By: Siti Farhana Sheikh Yahya
