M'sian Who Lied About NASA Scholarship Has Now Scammed His Way Into A Perdana Fellowship

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Yep!

On 23 August, Investment, Trade, and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz took to his verified Instagram profile, where he uploaded a post with multiple photographs of two Perdana Fellows.

In the post, which is still up at the time of writing, Tengku Zafrul wrote that 56 Perdana Fellows have been selected this year. He also stated that they will carry out their roles from 23 August until the end of this year.

"I extend my greetings to two Perdana Fellows, Gan Yu Jin and Muhammad Azhar, to the Ministry of Investment, Trade, and Industry (MITI). I hope this programme will provide you with a valuable experience," the minister stated in the post, which also included posters showcasing their individual achievements.

His NASA claim had received congratulatory messages from then-prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and former science, technology, and innovation minister Khairy Jamaluddin, among others.

Khairy had, in fact, welcomed him into his ministry and the Malaysian Space Agency.

Following the national coverage that Azhar's story received at the time, SAYS published a story raising a number of red flags about his claim, prompting the youth to claim he was "scammed".

Until Tengku Zafrul's post last month, Muhammad Azhar, also known as Azhar Ali, had largely remained out of the public eye.

Just like his made-up claim of winning a NASA scholarship in 2020, a number of Azhar's "achievements" — such as Champion of the WorldQuant Brain 2022 Global Alphathon, Best Delegate at the Bank Negara Fiscal Policy Summit 2021, and Microsoft Imagine Cup 2021 Runner-Up — appear to be falsified.

For example, the winning teams at the WorldQuant Brain 2022 Global Alphathon are actually from Vietnam, China, and South Korea, as per the official announcement by WorldQuant on 21 December last year. The announcement, which includes the names of the winning teams, does not mention either Azhar or Malaysia.

Similarly, Azhar's claim of being the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2021 runner-up did not pass verification checks. The winner is a group from Kenya, and the other finalists are from the US, Thailand, and New Zealand.

Malaysia was not even in the five teams from Asia that emerged in the top 12 finalists.

SAYS is checking the veracity of Azhar's "Best Delegate at the Bank Negara Fiscal Policy Summit in 2021" claim. We will update this story once we have received confirmation from the Central Bank of Malaysia.

UPDATE, 15 SEPTEMBER:
Bank Negara has now confirmed with SAYS that there's "no such award".

According to the statement, Azhar presented a false certificate for one of the achievements.

"KBS is aware of the recent viral story involving a Fellow who was placed at MITI. The public university student listed several achievements when applying for the Perdana Fellow Programme. However, one of the achievements, after checks with the organiser, was found to be not genuine.

"Therefore, due to this issue, he will be terminated from participating in the Perdana Fellow programme for violating the terms of the agreement for the programme," the statement said.

"However, he will be offered to undergo counselling sessions," KBS stated.

The ministry also stated that it will commence an investigation to ensure the programme's admission process will be strengthened in the near future.