Two Indian NGOs threaten to lead a protest over the shower room canteen affair.
PUTRAJAYA: There will be a public protest outside the Education Ministry on Sept 5 unless the government punishes the headmaster of Sekolah Kebangsaaan Seri Pristana in Sungai Buloh.
Two Indian-based NGOs gave this ultimatum to the ministry today in a memorandum submitted to the ministry’s Corporate Communications Department.
The NGOs—Malaysian Tamilan Today and Malaysian Indian Education Transformation Association—were complaining about the apparent lack of political will to take action against school head Mohamad Nasir Mohd Noor, who is at the centre of a controversy sparked last month by a Facebook posting about non-Muslim students having to use the school’s shower room as a canteen.
“Many complaints have been lodged against the headmaster, but no action has been taken against him,” Malaysian Tamilan Today spokesman K Gunasekaran told reporters after submitting the memorandum.
Last month, the mother of a nine-year-old pupil at the school uploaded several pictures showing students eating in the shower room instead of the canteen. The students were all non-Muslims since it was the fasting month of Ramadan.
The incident caused a pubic uproar, but the school has since claimed that the decision to use the shower room had nothing to do with the fasting month or the students’ religions. It said the canteen was under renovation.
Subsequently, it was reported that the daughter of the woman who uploaded the pictures was being ostracised by teachers and her peers.
Gunasekaran alleged that the headmaster had instructed a photographer to snap pictures of the student, saying this was a form of intimidation.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.