KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 13 — The Malaysian Academic Movement (Move) urged Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today to remove Senator Datuk Marzuki Yahya as the deputy foreign minister over his dubious degree.

The group’s executive council demanded the same for other Pakatan Harapan (PH) officials who misrepresent their academic qualifications and said the coalition must do so to prove its commitment to integrity and good governance.

"The question is why did Datuk Marzuki, for instance, create assumptions that he was a Cambridge University graduate? This PPBM leader only clarified that he graduated from Cambridge International University (CIU) after being pressed from all sides.

"However, his explanation created another controversy when it was found that CIU is not accredited, and to make things worse, it is known as a ‘degree mill’. This means he did not obtain his ‘academic qualifications’ legitimately,” the Move exco said in a statement today.

The group said it accepted that academic achievements were not the sole measure of a politician’s abilities but said questionable integrity was unacceptable.

It added that the controversy over dubious qualifications was damaging PH’s credibility, especially since it had championed integrity during their 14th General Election campaign.

Besides Marzuki, other PH leaders caught in similar controversies include Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Osman Sapian and Tronoh state assemblyman Paul Yong.