Teacher Faces Sacking For Criticising Govt Policy

---

 


A teacher attached to the Education Ministry is facing dismissal from the civil service after the ministry’s disciplinary body found him guilty for speaking ill about government policy.
Mohd Fadli Salleh, better known as Cikgu Fadli to his over 600,000 followers on Facebook, revealed this in a post on the social media platform last night.
The post has received over 500 comments and 2,400 shares so far.
He said the ministry’s top management issued him a letter informing him of their decision to either sack or demote him for his online posts critical of government policy.
“Because of my sincerity and speaking the truth, the Education Ministry wants to sack me from service. Oh Malaysiaku,” Fadli (above) said in his post, which was accompanied by photos of the letter he received.
“Tonight I share with you directly the letter I received from the ministry, saying they want to dismiss or demote me.”
According to the letter dated Sept 22, the ministry's Disciplinary Board found him guilty of three counts of violating a provision under the Public Officers (Conduct and Discipline) Regulations 1993, which prevents a civil servant from “making any comments against the weaknesses of any government policy, plan, or decision.”
The verdict concerned three Facebook posts made in November last year where Fadli criticised the Education Ministry’s school syllabus, which he also blamed as the reason students have to carry heavy bags daily.
The letter sent to Fadli was signed by Education Ministry Disciplinary Board chairperson Yusran Shah Mohd Yusof, who is also the ministry's director-general. It also gave the Sekolah Kebangsaan (1) Gombak teacher 21 days to respond and provide his representation on the issue.
‘Proper channels’ used
In his post last night, Fadli questioned why the ministry wanted to terminate his service when he has a good track record as a teacher.
He said he also tried to highlight the issue to the Education Ministry’s top management via “the proper channels”, but his complaints allegedly fell on deaf ears.
“Do not talk about ‘proper channels’ with me. Because I had gone through the most proper channel, which was during the discussions about upgrading new school syllabus held at the district Education Department, in front of over 30 Gombak district Mathematics teachers, district education officers, and also officers from the (Selangor) state Education Department,” he added.
Fadli stressed he would not be cowed by the action and vowed to keep fighting for the benefit of his students and the future generation.
Should he be sacked by the ministry, he said, he would bring his fight to court.
The matter also came to the attention of Education Minister Mohd Radzi Md Jidin who said on Facebook that he wants to meet with Fadli.
“I am interested to get to know more about this matter raised by Cikgu Fadli.
“If you have the time, we can meet up,” Radzi said.
‘Now he wants to respond’
The invitation, however, seemed to have irked Fadli and attracted criticisms against Radzi for being late to the issue.
In a more recent post, Fadli questioned Radzi’s motive in responding to him now, after years of trying to get the senior minister’s attention.
Senior Minister (Education) Mohd Radzi Md Jidin“Only tonight he responded after so many times I had tagged (his Facebook account) before this. All these years, I have raised this issue by commenting on his Facebook postings, on the ministry’s page.
“He never responded to me before this, not even once. Now he wants to respond. Why tonight? Why not when I was called up by the integrity unit?”
However, Fadli added, he will take the invitation as something positive and has agreed to meet with Radzi “one day”.
Malaysiakini has sent requests for comments on the issue to Radzi and the ministry. - Mkini

---