A claim that 10,000 Bangladeshi students in Malaysia will be given a "graduate pass" to enable them to work in the country is untrue and baseless, said Malaysian Higher Education Minister Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir.
He clarified that during the recent visit of Chief Adviser Prof Dr Muhammad Yunus, no agreement was signed that bound Malaysia to accept 10,000 Bangladeshi students to work in the country, reports The Star.
Zambry also advised Kedah industry and investment, higher education, science, technology, and innovation committee chairman Dr Haim Hilman Abdullah, a Malaysian politician and academic, to be more cautious when making statements on any issue, including matters related to higher education.
"Based solely on a newspaper report in Bangladesh, he has made the allegation that I have agreed to consider providing ‘graduate passes’ to 10,000 Bangladeshi students in Malaysia to enable them to work here. The allegation is completely untrue and inaccurate,” he said in a statement on Saturday.
He added that Haim Hilman’s claim, suggesting that the public was worried because Malaysia had agreed to the matter, was very irresponsible.
"As someone with an academic background, he should have made statements based on true, accurate and authentic facts, not speculation or spreading information carelessly. Academic principles demand information that has integrity, accuracy and truth,” said Zambry.
He further stressed that Haim Hilman should not arbitrarily create perceptions by presenting inaccurate information and misleading people.
"The culture of producing 'content' to be made viral on social media with incorrect facts must be stopped immediately," he said.
Earlier, Haim Hilman, through a two-minute and 19-second video uploaded on his TikTok account, had claimed that 10,000 Bangladeshi students would be given job opportunities in Malaysia.