The Selangor state exco wants to have a look at the doctorate in philosophy certificate held by the BN's newly-appointed opposition leader in the state assembly, Satim Diman, to ensure that it is genuine.

The exco for agriculture modernisation, entrepreneurship and natural resource management Yaakob Sapari said Satim would be asked to to hand over his doctorate certificate as soon as possible to speaker Teng Chang Khim for verification by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency.

"He should also reveal to the people the programme that he took, and from which university he obtained the PhD," he said.

NONE"The present situation is worrying as many in society are prepared to buy PhDs from syndicates, without going through the hard knox of striving to increase their knowledge or scope of their research," he added in a statement.

Yaakob (left), who is also PKR's deputy chairperson for research, said buying degree qualifications was a crime, as well degrading to a university's reputation and an insult to the academic world.

He said he suspected Satim's doctorate qualification was false and challenged him to reveal details of his tertiary education, from basic degree to Masters and the doctorate.

"Satim is using his 'doctorate' widely... this is also printed on posters and placed on the rehal (the stand on which the Quran is placed), for distribution in mosques and surau in Sri Serdang.

"Some tertiary institutions offer courses to make a profit, without having the necessary accreditation or following the standards of the country," Yaakob said.

However, speaker Teng said he had no knowledge of whether Satim's doctorate qualification was questionable, adding that he had not issued any order for the Sri Serdang assemblyperson to submit the qualification to his office.

Meanwhile Malaysiakini's attempts to contact Satim for clarification have been unsuccessful.