Maszlee Malik attends Parliament October 9, 2019. — Picture by Miera Zulyana

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 12 — Education Minister Maszlee Malik took a dig at himself on Twitter while teasing about his ministry’s accomplishments over the past year.

Using a stern-looking image of himself in the tweet yesterday, he said: “What is the Education Ministry’s biggest accomplishments in 2019? Besides black shoes ”

Maszlee came under fire previously when he announced that primary and secondary school students may opt to wear black shoes with their uniforms beginning this year, with some calling him the “black shoes minister”.

Twitter users joined in the fun with some voicing their support of the minister despite his shortcomings while others criticised him for his decisions.

User @camancher2012 expressed amusement that the minister still had time to troll his trolls over the black shoe affair.

Another user, rockstarpete defended Maszlee saying that the media had unfairly targeted him but also said that he should focus on raising Malaysia’s education level and less on right-wing issues.

“The media has been unfairly targeting you & blow your pettiness out of proportion however YB U & your sometime mis priorities also gave them the opportunity to dig on u. Hope you can emphasise d future of our educations & bring it another level. And much less on right wing stuff,” said rockstarpete.

Others such as hakimblue99 pointed out that black shoes are far easier to clean compared to white shoes which have been part of the school dress code in Malaysia since time immemorial.

“Oof. That burns. But I believe that black shoes is not a problem. It’s easier to wash when compared to white shoes,” said hakimblue99.

However, Maszlee also came under fire from some users such as @asyahmi01 who sarcastically said that the Education Ministry’s biggest achievements were black shoes, black socks, the Jawi issue, Dong Zong, recognising the UEC and impoverished schools in Sabah and Sarawak.

Another user, Hjh.FW also blasted the PPBM minister saying that his biggest achievements include the Negaraku incident and the hanging of the Malaysian flag Jalur Gemilang upside down by a school.

Zulnizzam Zulkifli on the other hand made a request for Maszlee to reinstate the book vouchers that was granted under the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) administration.

Addy Ahmad also made a recommendation for Maszlee, saying that there is room for improvement among Malaysian teachers.

“Improve the scheme for teachers to further our studies, especially for those who obtain scholarship from international bodies/uni. Discard ridiculous rules like Top 100 unis, and course restrictions. Also, the ridiculous waiting period from Cuti Belajar after Masters to PhD,” said Addy.