Representatives from the Malaysian Gurdwaras Council led by its president Jagir Singh and representatives from Malaysian Hindu Sangam led by its president Mohan Shan met with the Higher Education Minister Idris Jusoh this morning at about 11.45am at the minister’s office.

Jagir informed the minister about the factually false and inaccurate statements made by a Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) lecturer relating to the Sikh religion especially where he stated Kabir to be founder of the Sikh religion when in actual fact it was Guru Nanak who was the founder of the Sikh faith and Kabir was only one of the 30 saints whose writings were accepted and included in the Holy Sikh Scripture Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji.

Similarly Mohan informed the minister about the inaccurate teaching slides regarding the Hindu religion.

The minister in reply informed the following:

i) That UTM was in the process of taking action in respect of the controversial slides relating to Sikhism and Hinduism.

ii) That UTM vice-chancellor Wahid Omar had released an unconditional apology and commenced investigations immediately after matter came to light.

Subsequently UTM had taken the following steps.

a) A task force has been formed to look into the case from holistic perspective in a impartial and unbiased manner.

b) The task force has identified the lecturer in question and issued him a letter to clarify the issue and the content of slides.

c) The lecturer has replied and provided clarification and references for the content used and facts presented.

d) The university management has appointed an independent external committee comprising of Professor Zaid Ahmad, Dr Sarjit Singh and Professor Rajantheran Muniandy to assess the credibility of the materials submitted and submit its recommendations.

e) The committee is expected to provide the results of their assessments within a week.

The minister further informed that the ministry is awaiting the outcome of the independent external committee and UTM’s decision.

The minister stated that his ministry strongly condemned what had happened.

The minister added that role of higher education is to promote unity, understanding and tolerance between the various racial groups in Malaysia.

Academic integrity and the integrity of academics is therefore sacred to the minister.

In conclusion, the minister stated that the results of the independent committee and UTM’s action would be made public in about a week’s time.

Both Jagir and Mohan then expressed hope that proper directions will be given to institutions of higher learning so that such issue as the present one will not recur again.

JAGIR SINGH is president, Malaysian Gurdwaras Council.