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Hishammuddin should end the two-year secrecy and mystery shrouding the Murad Report on the education system as it concerns not just Sekolah Agama Rakyat but also the future of all primary schools including Chinese and Tamil primary schools
Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang (Parliament House, Friday): Education Minister Datuk Hishammuddin Hussein should end the two-year secrecy and mystery shrouding the Murad Report on the education system as it concerns not just Sekolah Agama Rakyat but also the future of all primary schools including Chinese and Tamil primary schools. Hishammuddin was not being truthful and frank when he said yesterday, both during question-time in Parliament and to reporters at the Parliament lobby, that the Murad Education Review Committee was set up two years ago to study the functions of Sekolah Agama Rakyat (SAR) and the continued role of religious studies in schools, and that he as Education Minister, had submitted the report to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi two months ago for study by the main committee headed by the Prime Minister and that the recommendations of the Murad Report would be implemented in stages.
Hishammuddin’s inaccuracies and misleading statements include:
(1) His claim that the Murad Education Review Committee was set up two years ago to study the SAR. This is not true as all the press reports can bear testimony to the following:
(i) On November 29, 2002, the UMNO Supreme Council set up the highest-powered education review committee in the nation’s history, headed by the then Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad “to review the entire national education system to improve the quality of education and to ensure that the national schools are the popular choice of all Malaysians to foster national unity”. Members of the high-powered Mahathir education review committee who attended its inaugural meeting on December 11, 2002 were Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, Datuk Abdul Aziz Shamsuddin and Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman.
(ii) On February 13, 2003, Mahathir announced the setting up of a committee headed by former Education director-general Tan Sri Murad Mohd Noor to restructure the national school system to make it attractive to all the races in the country. He said: “If sufficient time is allocated for religious studies in national schools, the Malays would not go to privately-run Sekolah Agama Rakyat. We also do not want Chinese and Indian families rejecting national schools and sending their children to national-type schools, thinking that national schools are only for Malays and emphasizing Islam.”
(iii) In August 2003, Murad told the press that his Committee had submitted its recommendations to Mahathir, proposing “significant changes with far-reaching effects” to the national education system.
(iv) There were also media reports at the time that the Murad Committee had submitted a report on its study of SAR to the then Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at a meeting in Putrajaya in July, 2003 – which was also attended by the then Education Minister, Tan Sri Musa Mohamad. The SAR study covered “all aspects on SAR”, including the financial capability, infrastructure and human development.
(2) The Murad report on SAR could not have been submitted to Abdullah two months ago as claimed by Hishammuddin, when there were media reports in July last year that this had been done – before Hishammuddin became Education Minister, which was only after the March general election this year.
It is clear from the above that the Murad Education Review Committee had two separate terms of reference, firstly on the entire national education system and secondly on the SAR, and both reports had been submitted to Mahathir and Abdullah respectively by August last year, when Hishammuddin was still the Minister for Youth and Sports.
The question is why the Murad Education Review Committee and its Reports had been wrapped in such secrecy and mystery that there had been no public participation, consultation and input during the entire process of its deliberations, to the extent that even Ministers and leaders of the other Barisan Nasional parties apart from UMNO had been completely kept in the dark.
It is against all tenets of openness, accountability and good governance that the two Murad Reports, one with “far-reaching effects” to the national education system and the other on the SAR, continue to be classified documents when they should have been made public and tabled in Parliament to allow for the most extensive public discussion and debate.
Can Hishammuddin explain why the two Murad Education Review Reports are still wrapped up in mystery and secrecy – and why they could not be immediately made public without any more delay or censorship? |