Book closed on KKB school Interlok issue

(Malaysiakini) Tensions between a faculty member and parents of students who locked horns over the novel Interlok in the Kuala Kubu Bharu school have simmered down after a meeting yesterday morning.

At the two-hour meeting, the parents and the discipline teacher who had allegedly verbally abused the students when they tried to return their novels, was said to have agreed to bury the hatchet.

"Everything is calm and resolved. All parties have apologized to each other," said district education officer Mat Jah Roslan when contacted.

According to Mat Jah, who was at the meeting alongside Hulu Selangor parliamentarian P Kamalanathan and representatives from state education department (JPN) and the Parent-Teacher Association, the stand-off was merely a misunderstanding.

As such, the police report lodged by the discipline teacher and a counter-report by the parents have all been withdrawn.

In her report, the discipline teacher alleged that one of the 17-year-old's elder brother had brought 100 thugs from Kuala Lumpur to intimidate her and her family.

The teen's brother was, however, out of town when the incident was said to have taken place.

When questioned, Mat Jah refused to divulge details of the meeting and how the misunderstanding resulting in such allegations had occurred, preferring to close the book on the matter.

Indirect school lesson

The three form five students involved were reportedly brought into the Kuala Kubu Bharu police station for a 10-hour questioning session, without the presence of their guardians, after they tried to return the novel to their principal.

They were hauled in by PTA chairperson Baktiar Md Rashid, who is also a police officer, provoking the ire of a parent who questioned why her child was taken out of the school without her consent.

According to the students, they could not to return the book to the principal as they were stopped by the discipline teacher and made to disperse.

The teacher had reportedly said: "Kenapa orang India garang? India memang suka rosakkan nama sekolah. Keling memang dasar pariah sejak sejarah lagi" (Why are the Indians so fierce? Indians really like to tarnish the school's name. The keling have been pariahs since historical times).

Meanwhile, when contacted, Hulu Selangor police chief Norel-Azmi Yahya Affendi said that police have concluded their investigations on the matter.

"We have now referred the matter to the legal department of the Shah Alam contingent headquarters, and are awaiting their decision," he told Malaysiakini yesterday.