FORMER Education Minister, Dr Maszlee Malik claimed that the existence of the ‘Deep State and Little Napoleon’ culture in the Ministry of Education (MOE) is true.
According to him, the refusal of civil servants to implement ministerial orders is not something new, even when he was the Minister of Education.
“Shaza, my former officer has exposed some of it,” he said via his Facebook today.
Earlier, Maszlee referred to a news portal report regarding his former officer, Shaza Scherazade Alauddin Onn in the trial involving the teacher truancy suit filed by Siti Nafirah Siman against the government in the Kota Kinabalu High Court.
“Yesterday Malaysiakini reported on witness statements regarding the case of a teacher who skipped school that was brought to court during my time.
“My former special officer, Shaza Shahrezad, has revealed everything in her statement.
“Although I had ordered that those guilty be dealt with strictly and appointed a special officer to handle the case, the top management of the ministry has not carried out my instructions through the officers I appointed” he said.
According to reports, Shaza Scherazade informed the Kota Kinabalu High Court that the ministry ignored reports of the misuse of billions of ringgit in a project in addition to cases of child and sexual abuse.
While giving evidence in the case as quoted in the report, Shaza Scherazade claimed that the ministry repeatedly covered up serious misconduct even though violations had been proven.
“In the sexual abuse case, despite clear ministry guidelines, regulations and child protection laws requiring teachers to report such incidents to the police, no action was taken by the teachers or the headmaster.
“In the case of a mentally disabled student who was physically abused - the case was investigated and found to be true - the only course of action taken was to transfer the teacher instead of reporting the matter to the police, even though it was a criminal offence,” she testified.
She said that as a special officer, she was often forced to intervene because the ministry either ignored or failed to comply with the minister's instructions, to ensure that the results remained in line with the instructions of the minister's office. – October 2, 2025
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