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UTM identifies ‘dirty Hindus’ Titas slides author
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The Higher Education Ministry has been informed by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) that is in the process of taking action in respect of the Tamadun Islam dan Tamadun Asia (Titas) subject slides which had recently sparked controversy.

The ministry notes that UTM’s vice-chancellor, Professor Dr Ir Wahid Omar, had released an unconditional apology and commenced an investigation when the issue first came to light. Subsequently, UTM has taken also the following steps:

a. Immediately following the incident, an Internal Task Force was formed to manage and coordinate handling of the case. The task force was chaired by UTM’s deputy vice-chancellor (academic and international affairs) Professor Dr Rose Alinda Alias and consisted of academic leaders including three individuals of different races and religions to look into the case from a holistic perspective in an impartial and unbiased manner.

b. Resulting from the investigation, the Internal Task Force has identified the lecturer in question, who is currently a contract academic staff in UTM. The lecturer has been asked to clarification the contents and materials used for the Titas course, including the lecture slides, books referred to, and references used to substantiate the credibility of the content.

c. The lecturer in question has since replied and provided explanations and references for the content used and facts presented.

d. After getting the reply from the lecturer, the university management decided to appoint an Independent External Committee of Titas Experts comprising Professor Zaid Ahmad and Associate Professor Dr Sarjit Singh Darshan Singh (both from Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM) as well as Prof Dr Rajantheran Muniandy (Universiti Malaya, UM).

e. All the information presented by the lecturer in question have been passed to the Independent External Committee to assess the credibility of the materials submitted. At the same time, the committee is asked to decide on the appropriacy of the expressions and language used by the lecturer in question.

f. The committee is expected to provide the results of their assessment within a week. The next course of action will depend on the report of the Independent External Committee. The process of taking any action, including disciplinary, will be decided by UTM as part of their autonomous authority.

The ministry as such awaits the outcome of the Independent External Committee and UTM’s decision before deciding on any further action of its own.

The ministry wishes to state that it strongly condemns what had happened. The 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 ministry.

The ministry hopes that what had happened in UTM does not recur and would like to remind all educators of their responsibilities in preparing and conveying knowledge to their students.

- Bernama

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