While tabling the 12th Malaysia Plan at the Dewan Rakyat last week, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the government would be repairing 148 dilapidated schools at a cost of RM1.6 billion in 2021 and 2022.

When asked for the list by former deputy education minister Teo Nie Ching (PH-Kulai), Radzi shot her down by saying that neither she nor former education minister Maszlee Malik (Ind-Simpang Renggam) had produced such lists during their time at the ministry.

Radzi went on to explain that the decision to put such schools on the list were based on factors such as their location, the scope of work involved, and cost.

Adding that providing a list of such schools would lead to “unproductive discussions”, he said the ministry was transparent and committed to ensuring “every sen of the rakyat’s money” is properly used to finish such projects on time.

Teo immediately stood up to say that she had to correct the senior minister.

“Who said we never gave out the list during PH’s time?

“If you see statements issued by the education and finance ministry, we have given out such lists. If one is really transparent, what is the problem in giving out such lists?” she asked.

“You said this matter involves 148 schools and RM1.6 billion. Are you saying that the rakyat does not have the right to know which schools are involved and the cost of the work involved at each school?,” Teo added.

Maszlee then insisted Radzi retract his statement, stating that it would confuse the Dewan Rakyat.

“We even provided a dashboard for the rakyat to monitor the progress (in repairing dilapidated schools),” he said of his time under the PH administration.

While he did not explicitly agree with Teo and Maszlee that such lists were provided during PH’s administration, Radzi then conceded it would be “no problem” to provide a list of the schools and the cost to replace them.

“But to ask for the scope and other details, we cannot provide that. One by one with detailed information on the costs. We are not at that level,” he said.

Later on, Maszlee said he found it strange that he was not able to open the dashboard link as it provided him with a 404 error, meaning that the page could not be found.

“That means the dashboard is not there anymore,” said Maszlee, who again asked Radzi to retract his statement.

“To equate the lack of transparency in the ministry during your tenure to our time is not (right) at all”.