LETTER | Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik’s recent appointment of seven persons to the National Education Advisory Council has met with some severe criticisms from certain quarters through the social media.

The main criticism has been that the appointed members lack experience in education management and are therefore not qualified. Persatuan Patriot Kebangsaan (Patriot) has a different opinion.

Brig Gen Yusri Anwar, one of the seven appointees, is academically qualified and has vast military experience in areas of command and leadership, management, strategic planning, and is an expert in motivation.

Besides, his career in the military, which spanned more than 36 years, included several overseas attachments as instructor and defence attaché.

An officer who rose through the ranks, held various appointments and dealt with foreign authorities, is sure to be someone very capable and full of experience.

While we applaud the appointment of Yusri to the council, we would also like to urge him to pay special attention at the alleged lowering of academic standard at Universiti Pertahanan Negara Malaysia (UPNM) and to use his position without fear or favour to ensure the highest academic standard and integrity is observed by the university.

Yusri’s critics are unwise to say he is good only at warfare. Similarly, criticism against all the other appointees for lack of management in education matters is narrow in thinking.

Pertaining to educational matters, the Education Minister has all the advisors he needs from his ministry. Other than education matters, what he needs most is the life experience of people in different fields which he can incorporate in his policies and the implementation of projects.

From the outset of his appointment as a minister, Maszlee has stressed his desire to instil positive values among students at primary levels.

Patriot fully supports his idea, as there can be no better approach than to instill positive values at an early age to build a strong foundation for success in the future.

Furthermore, it is the minister’s prerogative to appoint whom he can trust. It is he alone who has to assume responsibility for all his policies and actions.

The writer is the president of Patriot.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.