00:00Urimay Chairman P. Ramasamy today hit out at the response of International Islamic University of Malaysia to one of its academics,
00:08who claimed that the Romans learned the art of shipbuilding from the Malays.
00:13Ramasamy, who lectured at University Kebangsaan Malaysia from 1981 to 2005,
00:19said Soleha Yaqob's claim had sparked uproar in academic circles,
00:23particularly because her area of expertise bore little relevance to disciplines such as history, archaeology or maritime studies,
00:31fields which he said were necessary to make such sweeping historical claims.
00:36Soleha, an Arabic-language lecturer at IIUM, was believed to have made the remarks in response to the discovery of a 13th-century shipwreck near Pulau Melaka last Friday.
00:45In response, IIUM said yesterday that it regretted the academics' actions as they had tarnished the university's academic integrity and reputation,
00:55adding that Soleha's comments were made in her personal capacity and did not represent the university's official position.
01:03Ramasamy, a former Penang deputy chief minister, said it was astonishing that IIUM had chosen leniency rather than disciplinary action
01:11against a lecturer who made claims that were vastly disconnected from established historical knowledge.
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