KUALA LUMPUR, May 2 — The Universiti Malaysia Pahang researchers behind a RM9,000 exorcism kit should be put up for the Nobel Prize for Physics, Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari said in apparent jest.
Questioning the priorities of Malaysian education following reports about the development of such a kit, the DAP lawmaker pointed out that funds were being poured into researching how to exorcise “evil spirits and supernatural beings” when these could have been put to more pressing use.
He then highlighted the case of the Sabah school without walls, schools without water or power supply as well as continued grouses among teachers over administrative burdens and computer applications that remain unresolved.
“However, when the country’s institutions of learning are still struggling with basic challenges such as infrastructure problems, shortages in teaching manpower and declining educational quality, our intellectuals seem engrossed in diverting research and pre-commercialisation grants to ‘exorcism’ efforts,” he said in a statement today.
He then expressed desire to learn the methodology of the reported exorcism kit, before pointedly saying that the researchers should be nominated for the Nobel Prize for Physics if they really have proven the existence of and interacted with life from other dimensions.
“But if their claims are not true, then for the sake of Islam and the reputation of our education system, I beseech the university administrators to review and adjust their priorities,” he said.
Yesterday, local media reported that UMP was selling a RM9,000 exorcism kit comprising everyday items like chopsticks, salt, lime, vinegar, pepper spray, and formic acid.
According to an official, the chopsticks will be used to “press down” the fingers of hysteria victims, whereas the formic acid will function like hot water to be poured around at spots where the spirits lurk.
The university was reported as saying that the kit, which took three years to produce, was created to address hysteria afflicting young students, typically a condition of exaggerated or uncontrollable emotions.
At a press conference to launch the product at the Education Ministry’s office in Putrajaya, a UMP official said that three of the institution’s researchers as well as one Islamic medicine expert from the Manarah Islamic Treatment Centre, were roped in for the project with test runs already completed at 11 schools.
The varsity is also mulling establishing an Islamic medicinal lab to expand its academic and scientific research into the matter.
This is not the first time UMP has made headlines for its apparent interest and research in supernatural elements.
In March, through its Committee for Advanced Studies in Witchcraft Law, the university formulated a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to combat the use of witchcraft.
The Nobel Prize is a collection of annual awards given out to recognise achievements in the fields of academia, culture and science.
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