UiTM should dismiss former Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan as lecturer at its Centre of Media and Information Warfare Studies (CMIWS) if it aspires to be a centre of excellence for its information warfare centre, as the former IGP has become a “poster boy” not only for media illiteracy but also for lies, fake news and hate speech.

Last October, Musa made himself the joke in the cyber world when he demonstrated his media illiteracy by showing that he did not know that The Onion website was a satirical news website when he defended his comment against an old Onion article on terrorist Osama Bin Laden and the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), entitled “CIA Issues Posthumous Apology After New Evidence Clears Osama Bin Laden Of Involvement In 9/11 Attacks”.

Recently, Musa again made a fool of himself when he tried to poison the minds of the new generation of Malaysians alleging that DAP has an agenda to rewrite history by reviving the communist ideology.

In doing do, Musa denigrated the Special Branch of the Malaysian Police as an useless and incompetent outfit, when in fact the Special Branch is one of the best of its kind in the world.

Over past five decades, the Special Branch could not find any connection of DAP with the communist movement, but Musa, who was the eighth IGP from 2006 – 2010, now alleges that DAP wants to revive the communist ideology!

Is Musa suggesting that the Police should arrest and detain the DAP Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Members of Parliament for trying “to revive the communist Ideology”, when this is completely baseless, untrue and a total figment of Musa’s imagination?

UiTM’s CIMWS should be one of the agencies that should be in the forefront to promote media literacy in Malaysia with the upsurge of lies, fake news and hate speech to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation and conflict in Malaysia so that all Malaysians can differentiate fact from misinformation and disinformation, and truth from lies.

Dr. Nuurrianti Jallin, a fellow of CIMWS, suggested in an article in local media today the establishment of a fact-checking agency to mitigate the information disorder in our society, but how can CIMWS have the authority and credibility to play a leading role in promoting media literacy in Malaysia when it most star-studded lecturer is a “poster boy” not only for media illiteracy but also for lies, fake news and hate speech?

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah on Sunday, 2nd February 2019)