State looking to rehire recently terminated religious teachers

KOTA BARU: The Kelantan government is looking into rehiring religious teachers in the state who lost their jobs when the new Federal Government terminated the services of all “political appointees”.

Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob said the religious teachers may have been wrongly categorised.

“We will look into hiring these religious teachers if they are not rehired by the Federal Government,” he said after opening an Al-Quran programme at Balai Islam in Lundang on Monday.

Ahmad said they did not want the valuable knowledge of these teachers to be wasted.

He said this in response to media reports claiming 3,075 community teachers in Kelantan lost their jobs about two weeks ago, following the fall of the Barisan Nasional federal government.

Kelantan Umno chief Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said even village Al-Quran teachers earning a monthly allowance as low as RM400 were affected by the terminations.

Ahmad also objected to certain Pakatan Harapan leaders’ suggestion to abolish the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim).

“We must defend such religious institutions that have made great contributions in the interest of Islam,” said Ahmad, who is also the deputy PAS Mursyidul Am (spiritual adviser).

Ahmad also took a swipe at liberals who he alleged continued to create confusion based on their selective understanding of Islam.