DAP MPs have asked for more information regarding the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Muhyddin Yassin’s trip to United Arab Emirates (UAE) to be revealed. After a letter issued by the latter’s office had expressed willingness to divulge facts regarding the sources that funded the trip, MPs Zairil Khir Johari and Steven Sim have demanded for details regarding the purpose of the trip, funds allocations, investors interests, the government’s motive and benefits of the Ministry of Educations initiative there.
The response by the DPM’s office came after questions posed by the MPs regarding leaked information on the former’s 5 day trip to Dubai; revealing that only 3 hours were spent on official duties at the Gulf Education Exhibition while the rest of the days involved less strenuous activities such as golf, and “private programmes”.
In a statement made today, the MP’s had said that the public deserved to know the total cost borne by the Government, not only by the Ministry of Education and DPM’s Office, but also agencies such as TalentCorp, Education Malaysia, Tourism Malaysia and others for this trip, including for travel by “special aircraft,” lodging at the five-star Shangri-La Dubai and other costs incurred.
Whistleblower site peniupwisel2020.blogspot.com had revealed additional information regarding the trip’s financial details, that all the expenditure by the Deputy Prime Minister and his wife, as well as staff of the Minister’s Office in the Ministry of Education were to be paid for by the Ministry of Education, while the expenditure of other officers would be paid by the DPM’s office.
In terms of education development, the MPs had also asked for the purpose of establishing bilateral relations with most gulf countries that performed worse than Malaysia in the recent Programme for International Students Assessments (PISA) 2013 report.
“While Malaysia ranked at 52 out of 65 countries, Middle-Eastern countries such as Jordan and Qatar ranked 61st and 63rd, while UAE have managed to edge Malaysia out by ranking 48th.”
“Should we not be establishing education ties with high-performing states such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, Finland or Canada instead?,” they asked.
Other than that, MPs Zairil and Steven Sim had questioned why there were no officials from the Ministry of Education on board his gulf trip entourage when the purpose of the trip was to develop education ties and attend an education exhibition .
“Not only is it extravagant to send 17 people, it is even more shocking to note than out of the 17, seven of them are security personnel (six bodyguards and one aide-de-camp), while the rest are made up of personal aides such as four special officers, two political secretaries, a press secretary and a private secretary,”they said.
The statement from the DPM’s office also mentioned that some of the events in Dubai, such as dinners and golf games, were sponsored by private companies. Two Malaysian construction companies were specifically mentioned, namely Ahmad Zaki Resources Bhd and Eversendai Corporation.
This prompted the MPs to ask,
“Which other private companies are sponsoring and what are their interests in Malaysia?”
“For the sake of accountability and transparency in the use of public funds as well as in the public interest, we hope these questions will be answered,” they added.
