REDZUAN WAS NEVER ASKED TO RESIGN BUT CONTRACT ENDED

The alleged resignation of a Universiti Malaya dean has taken a new twist with the Education Ministry saying that his contract had merely ended.

Ministry secretary-general II Prof Datuk Seri Dr Zaini Ujang said Prof Datuk Dr Mohammad Redzuan Othman’s second term as the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences department had ended.

“Nobody asked him to resign. He has completed his two terms as a dean,” he said when contacted yesterday.

Asked if Dr Mohammad Redzuan’s term could be extended, Dr Zaini said it would not be practical as the professor was already bound to retire early next year.

Dr Zaini said one term lasted about two to three years and normally, a dean served two terms.

“The ministry had nothing to do with the resignation. It was just a normal process of completing a term,” he said.

Dr Zaini said the ministry was only involved in the appointment of a university’s vice-chancellor and deputy vice-chancellor.

“The rest, including professors and deans, are not in the ministry’s interest,” he said.

Online news portals had reported that the ministry ordered Dr Mohamad Redzuan, who was the UM Centre for Democracy and Elections (UMCedel) director, to resign from his position.

It was also reported that Dr Mohamad Redzuan’s tenure as the faculty dean was not renewed.

Some reports linked the dismissal to the centre’s previous survey findings on Malaysian politics which did not go down well with the university.

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RIGHT TO ASK REDZUAN TO QUIT UNIVERSITI MALAYA

The federal government made the right move to compel Universiti Malaya Centre for Democracy and Elections (UMcedel) director Professor Mohammad Redzuan Othman to resign, said Centre for Political Awareness Malaysia (CPAM).

Claiming that Redzuan is an “Anwarista” (Anwar supporter), CPAM president Huan Cheng Guan alleged that over the years the UMcedel’s former director had been instrumental in making UM staff and students anti-Barisan Nasional (BN).

Huan claimed Redzuan had also acted as the middleman to build strong relations between Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim and the pro-Anwar movement in UM.

He also alleged that Redzuan, and a former UM vice-chancellor, Professor Ghauth Jasmon (2008 to 2013), were with Anwar during their Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM) days.

“As staunch Anwar supporters, Redzuan and Ghauth have (allegedly) carried out a hidden agenda of making UM staff and students develop anti-government feelings,” he told FMT here today.
Huan, who is also Parti Cinta Malaysia (PCM) vice-president, recently contested and lost in the Bukit Gelugor by-election.

He cited several incidents to show Redzuan’s political partisanship.

He recalled that former PKR vice-president Zaid Ibrahim had claimed that Anwar, the PKR de facto leader, may have had a hand in a UMcedel survey, under Redzuan’s directorship, on the Kajang by-election.

Morally right

Huan said the survey pointed to Anwar becoming Selangor Menteri Besar to replace Khalid Ibrahim.
He said the survey also claimed that Kajang voters did not consider the by-election to be a waste of public money.

“But real grassroot sentiment showed the truth was to the contrary,” said Huan.

He noted that Redzuan became famous when a pre-election UMcedel survey declared that Pakatan

Rakyat’s general election manifesto had greater traction than BN’s manifesto.

Huan argued that the methodology used in UMcedel’s polls was questionable and Redzuan’s political link with Anwar raised suspicion that the survey results were distorted to shape public opinion and swing votes to Pakatan during the last general election.

He said that a researcher or an organisation must be completely free of any affiliation to any political party to carry out political polls objectively.

He also pointed out that Redzuan was not a social science research expert and his field of expertise was in history and politics of the Middle East, Islamic thought and civilisation and Islam in Malaysia.

“Considering all these factors… it is morally right to ask him to resign especially since his research studies are neither valid nor reliable.

“What the government has done is to nip the problem in the bud before the cancer of lies spreads further.”

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