Pusat Komas: No room for racism in our education system

PETALING JAYA: Human rights group Pusat Komas has applauded Universiti Teknologi Malaysia's (UTM) decision to fire the lecturer behind the disparaging lecture slides for the Islamic and Asian Civilisation Studies (Titas) module, which sparked uproar among Hindu and Sikh communities.

While commending the university for its swift action, the group said such an incident should not have happened in the first place.

"The education system should promote unity and harmony and not further erode the social fabric among Malaysians," it said in a statement.

Pusat Komas emphasized that pre-emptive measures should be taken to ensure that the education system is not manipulated to promote hatred and intolerance.

"In fact, there is a need for all education institutions to ensure that no forms of provocative or racial discriminatory elements are embedded in the education syllabus.

"We call on all educational institutions to ensure that education must enable all persons to participate effectively in their respective societies, promote understanding tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial and religious groups as stated in the Asean Human Rights Declaration," it stressed.

An independent committee appointed by the university ruled that the controversial slides, which went viral online, contained too many factual errors and judgmental elements and did not follow the module set by the university.