SHAH ALAM, 30 June: The former Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, resigned as a senior research fellow at the University of Malaya (UM), effective today.
The resignation was announced by Saifuddin through his Facebook page, on the principle of academic freedom and solidarity against the move by the administration of the oldest university of the country to remove the Director of the Centre for Democracy and Elections (UMCEDEL), Prof Datuk Dr Mohamad Radzuan Othman.
“Prof Datuk Dr Redzuan Othman is one of the founders of UMCEDEL and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Due to instructions from some parties in the Ministry of Education, he was recently ordered to resign as the Director of UMCEDEL.
“But he did not make a big fuss of it. Today, his tenure as dean was also discontinued, even though he was nominated by the lecturers of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. This story was published in The Malaysian Insider today.
“I knew about all this since the beginning through him and the vice chancellor of UM. Prof Redzuan had accepted the two decisions with an open mind. On the principle of academic freedom and solidarity, I resign as UM senior research fellow today,” Saifuddin said on his Facebook page.
The Malaysian Insider reported that Prof Mohamad Radzuan, who was also the UM Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, did not have his position renewed by the university because it was claimed that over the last few years, UMCEDEL had irked Putrajaya with its various survey findings showing the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) in a bad light.
He found out about his removal when UM released the list of new university deans and Prof Mohamad Redzuan’s name was not on the list, on June 26.
Sources also told The Malaysian Insider that the move to remove Prof Mohamad Radzuan was done on grounds that he will be retiring next year, in addition to pressure from the Chief Secretary II of the Ministry of Education, Datuk Dr Zaini Ujang, who was his friend when they were active in the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (ABIM).
NS
