The Malaysian Gurdwaras Council (MGC), welcomes the statement by UTM’s vice-chancellor Prof Dr Wahid Omar regarding the finding by the Indian civilisation independent expert committee that the reference materials used by UTM lecturer under probe in the controversial slides for the ‘Tamadun Islam dan Tamadun Asia’ (Titas) do not have credibility and are not authentic to represent the traditions and religious beliefs of the Sikhs and Hindus.

We also welcome the committee’s further recommendations, that is:

1) Titas books published by UTM which were used as text for the course be recalled from circulation.

2) That the Titas textbooks recognised by the Higher Education Ministry be the main reference books for the process of teaching and assessment.

3) That teaching force from various races with expertise in Indian and Chinese civilisations be used to teach Titas in UTM.

4) That UTM organise talks on civilisations and invite religious experts who have conducted intensive research on their religions.

The MGC also welcomes the statement that UTM was now in the process of taking action against the lecturer concerned.

The MGC hopes that the UTM authorities will act on all the remaining recommendations of the independent expert committee appointed by UTM earlier.

The MGC on its part is prepared to provide religious experts from its religious committee to assists UTM in organising talks on Indian civilisation.

In fact Associate Prof Dr Sarjit Singh Darshan Singh, who was one of the members of the expert committee, is a member of the MGC religious committee. In addition, MGC has other religious experts who can also assist UTM when requested.

MGC wishes to thank Prof Dr Wahid Omar and Higher Education Minister YB Idris Jusoh on their prompt action. MGC recalls that when MGC and Malaysian Hindu Sangam met the minister on June 23, 2016, the minister had promised that the findings of the independent expert committee would be made public in a week’s time and had done so within the week, as promised.

The MGC hopes that other institutions of higher learning in the country would similarly consult religious experts from various communities when dealing with other civilisation matters.

JAGIR SINGH is president, Malaysian Gurdwaras Council (MGC).