After weeks of suffering due to haze from Indonesian wildfires which plunged air quality to an unhealthy level, finally schools in the states of Johor, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, and Kuala Lumpur were closed on Friday (Oct 9). Malaysia’s Air Pollutant Index (API) classifies air quality as “unhealthy” from 101 to 200, “very unhealthy” from 201 to 300, and “hazardous” above 300.
It became so bad that you don’t need David Copperfield to make the iconic Petronas Twin Towers – popularly known asKLCC Twin Towers- disappear the same way the magician made the Statue of Liberty vanished in 1983. In fact, the toxic haze caused at least three iconic Kuala Lumpur landmarks like the KLCC Twin Towers, KL Tower, and TRX to disappear from view.
Johor is the first state in Peninsular Malaysia to announce temporary school closures for two days beginning Thursday after the API in Batu Pahat district reached the “very unhealthy” range on Wednesday. While the closure of all schools in Johor was decreed by the Regent of Johor, Tunku Mahkota Ismail, the decision to close schools in other states was made upon the advice of King Sultan Ibrahim of Johor.
It was only after the King’s decree that Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek came out with guns blazing – “I have asked all state education departments and district education offices to continue to monitor the haze situation and take immediate action if the situation requires it. Moving forward, we will ensure that any decision regarding school closures is announced in advance so that parents have sufficient time to make preparations.”
The blazing question is where exactly was Fadhlina since the weeks of haze invasion? Why must the Regent of Johor and the King do the jobs of the clueless education minister? What special skillset does she lack that requires looking at the Air Pollutant Index (API) before deciding whether to close schools or not? If she is so incompetent, why should taxpayers pay her salary when a donkey can do a better job?
Yes, from the widespread school bullying to school murder cases, and from the lowest score since 2018 in the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) 2025 to the impact of haze on the safety and health of the children, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s favourite minister, Fadhlina, does not seem to know what she is doing except firefighting only after every crisis occurred.
Heck,she was beating around the bush even after the declines in Pisa scores despite the Education Ministry’s budget having increased to RM66.2 billion in 2026 from RM55.2 billion the year before. Even if school crime is too complicated and sophisticated for her to understand, a decision to close schools when air quality drops to unhealthy levels across the country should be an easy task.
It was not a coincidence that the incompetent Fadhlina Sidek was appointed as education minister. She is the daughter of the late Dr Siddiq Fadzil, former president of ABIM, a radical movement co-founded by a young Anwar Ibrahim in the 1970s. As the president of ABIM (Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia) for eight years (1974-1982), Anwar was the same radical Islamist who used Islam as a platform to achieve his political ambition.
PM Anwar’s Islamization agenda saw an episode of racism at a national school in Johor – SMK Infant Jesus Convent – where special SPM workshops held at Hotel Suasana were conducted for only Muslim students. When the “secret class” was exposed and went viral on social media, the school lied that it involved only religious-related subjects. Fadhlina denied that there was discrimination, despite glaring evidence.
As Anwar continued to lose Malay votes, he panicked and was even more determined to prove that he is more Malay than UMNO-Malays and more Islamic than the Islamist party PAS. As a result, Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek hastily rolled out “Imam Al-Nawawi’s 40 Hadith” module for national schools without proper consultation with stakeholders.
The new religious syllabus has spooked the non-Muslim community, who were concerned that it would be a matter of time before the government shoves the module down their throat. Anwar-led unity government fails to explain why a new religious syllabus is introduced when Malay students are already overloaded with religious study – both in school and outside of school.
Former PM Mahathir Mohamad once complained that too much time is allotted for religious education, at the expense of subjects like Science and Mathematics – “We believe schools should provide religious education, but it should not encroach on the teaching of other subjects.” More importantly, he revealed that students are being taught to perform rituals instead of the Islam way of life.
Just when everyone thought it was the end of Anwar’s political stunt to impress upon Malay Muslims support, the premier’s favourite girl Fadhlina Sidek unleashed a weeklong program in schools nationwide to support the Palestinian – the “Palestine Solidarity Week” program – under the lame and laughable pretext of teaching students about humanitarian values.
But the program was a disaster. Students, believed to be national-type schools, were seen wearing green bandanas printed with the words “Save Palestine” while also carrying toy guns. It was absolutely horrible to see young students being led into a school assembly by a man armed with protective gear and a mask, along with a fake assault rifle – resembling a terrorist.
Among the teachers, some proudly displayed Palestinian flags or even held toy automatic rifles. National schools, which have become “religious schools” after the curriculum was changed to suit the spread of Islamic extremism, should be the last place for politicians to further radicalize the students. Are we training Jihadists or suicide bombers in schools now?
Under Anwar administration since November 2022, the education ministry has been flip-flopping – from keeping the Primary School Achievement Test (UPSR) and Form Three Assessment (PT3) examinations abolished, before reviewing the potential revival of the exams, to confirming that these exams are “no longer relevant or suitable for the times” and will not be reinstated – despite some calls for their return to boost academic standards.
There’s a reason why Malaysia now trails behind neighboring ASEAN nations like Vietnam, Brunei, and Thailand in core competencies like Mathematics. Over a ten-year span, Malaysia’s math score has fallen by 49 points (from 446 in 2015 to 397 in 2025). And only 44% of Malaysian students achieved Level 2 proficiency or higher in reading in the PISA 2025 assessment, meaning a majority (56%) fell below the baseline international standard.
Fadhlina is only efficient when it comes to Islamization, apple polishing, and radicalization. She is as clueless as a carrot when it comes to improving the quality of education and handling school safety, bullying, sexual harassment, and high-profile criminal incidents. Except for Anwar Ibrahim, everyone has repeatedly called for her resignation or sacking. Problems she can’t fix would be “swept under the carpet”.
She entered the Ministry of Education promising reform. After close to four years, most of the time sleeping on the job, she doesn’t even have the ability to announce schools’ closure after air quality drops to an unhealthy level. Schools had been “silenced” so that she wouldn’t look bad and incompetent, not to mention spending unnecessarily on unproductive and wasteful program.
Proud of her decision in spending RM8.4 million to purchase Jalur Gemilang pins for 5.14 million students nationwide, she misplaced her priority again when hastily announced a government allocation of RM200,000 for a rich school – Victoria Institution – just because Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, whom she met, said he was also a student of the 132-year-old school during his family’s self-exile in the 1960s.
But who can blame her when Anwar too was playing dumb and dragging his feet for weeks over the haze problems – all because he was afraid of offending fellow brother Indonesia. Only after the King’s decree was Anwar Ibrahim managed to find his balls and said he has personally contacted Prabowo regarding the “alarming” level of transboundary haze affecting Malaysia and the region.
The best part is the arrogant Prime Minister still hasn’t a clue that her girl would cost his party, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), and Pakatan Harapan coalition a few dozen seats in the next 16th General Election. Hiding behind the monarch to get things done shows not only pathetic incompetency and cowardice, but also poor leadership of both Anwar and Fadhlina.
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October 9th, 2026 by financetwitter
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