New body to replace council

A NEW body, free of political interference, will be set up set up to replace the National Professors Council (MPN), said Mohamed Hanipa Maidin.

The Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said the new membership would chosen based on merit and qualification.

Hanipa was responding to a question raised by Rusnah Aluai (PH-Tangga Batu) in Parliament yesterday.

MPN was formed in 2010 and was initially placed under the then Higher Education Ministry before being transferred to the Prime Minister’s Department in 2014, he said.

The Pakatan Harapan government decided to disband MPN at its first Cabinet meeting on May 23 as it was found to be politically slanted towards the previous Barisan Nasional administration.

“For example, there was a MPN member who was reported to have suggested that those who are in complicit with the US Department of Justice (on 1MDB) could be sentenced to death,” he said.

He added that 28 out of MPN’s 40 contract staff were issued termination letters on Nov 1.

However, Hanipa said the government agreed on Nov 2 to reinstate the MPN following appeals to the Council of Eminent Persons in June not to disband it.

He said the new body would be under the Education Ministry.

Hanipa said the government wanted a body of professors that would assist the government rather campaign for it.

He said professors with political ambitions should not be part of the new body but join politics.

He said MPN previously had 1,426 members comprising professors from local institutions.

Source: TheStar