Orang Asli parents lodge report on 'bribery attempt'

More than a month since their 12-year-old daughters were slapped by a teacher for not reciting a doa (Islamic prayer), lack of action has prompted three Orang Asli fathers today to make another three-hour journey from the Kelantan interior to lodge yet another police report.

This time, it is not only against the SK Bihai teacher who hadslapped the children, but also several of his colleagues, for allegedly attempting to bribe the parents to withdraw their initial report lodged on Oct 24, 2012 at the Gua Musang police station.

According to the police report, read out to Malaysiakini by SK Bihai Parent Teacher Association deputy chairperson Arom Asir, the parents lodged the report to express their dissatisfaction.

Along Pandak, Hassan Achoi and Atar Pedik, in their report, claimed that the bribery attempt happened on Nov 7 at a PTA meeting.

"The teachers said if we withdrew the report, they will pay us RM250 per student, while the teacher who slapped them (name withheld) would top up RM50 per student making the total RM300 per student,"

"We are clearly unsatisfied with this as the school had in the slapping incident evidently breached Section 17 of the Orang Asli Act," the report read.

Section 17 of the Act notes that Orang Asli children cannot receive religious instruction unless with approval from their parents, who in this case, claim they were not consulted. None of the children involved are Muslim.

Action still pending?

According to Arom, the teachers earlier said that they will take the parents to the Gua Musang police station on Nov 19 to lodge another police report retracting the earlier complaint, but the parents spurned the offer.

"The teachers had apologised, pleaded with parents and kept urging them to accept the offer. We have decided not to contact the teachers since as we know they will continue to push us on the matter," he said when contacted.

Last month Deputy Education Minister Wee Ka Siong (left) in the Dewan Rakyat confirmed the Oct 23 slapping incident and said that action was "underway".

"It doesn't seem that any action has been taken, but it is the school holidays now, so we will only know if the teacher involved would still teach at SK Bihai when the school term starts," Arom said.

Arom also said that the parents will heed Deputy Education Minister Puad Zarkashi's advice for them to lodge a complaint on the bribery attempt with the district education office.

"We will do so, although I believe they should already know about this," he said.

Malaysiakini has since last month repeatedly attempted to contact the school, but telephone calls have not gone through while text messages have been unanswered.

SK Bihai, an exclusively Orang Asli school, is located close to the Kelantan-Perak border, and does not have mobile telephone coverage.

The only telephone number listed for the school connects directly to the Gua Musang district education office, which also accepts mail on the school's behalf.