KUALA LUMPUR - Opposition politicians expressed outrage at news that a parent had been arrested for daring to speak out against the headmaster of his child's school, the controversial SK Seri Pristana in Sungai Buloh.
"I fid it hard to believe the authorities could be so insensitive and so crude in their behavior. Surly the police and school authorities cannot be so biased towards the non-Malays and non-Muslims. Given the political overtones in the 'toilet-canteen' episode, I wonder if someone in Umno is trying to use this incident to embarrass and sabotage Prime Minister Najib Razak," PKR MP for Batu Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.
Seri Pristana, a government-run primary school, hit the headlines when upset non-Muslim parents raised a commotion upon finding that their kids had been asked to take their meal breaks during the Ramadan month in the shower area of the school toilet.
The headmaster, who gained infamy when parents complained of his alleged bullying ways and bids to take revenge on their kids, is allegedly a leader in Malaysia's ruling Umno party.
Umno relies on a brand of Malay supremacy, racial and religious politicking to maintain its grip on the predominant Malay-Muslim electorate. Traditionally, each time Umno holds its election, leaders go out of their way to appeal to the powerful hardline factions in their party so as to boost their chances of defending their positions.
Simply outrageous
Soon after this, one of the parents who had complained about Mohd Nasir decided to remove her 9-year-old child from the school because she said the teachers would scold and blame her child for the bout of bad publicity.
Before the dust could settle, Mohd Nasir and Seri Pristana is once again in the public eye with another parent and for the 'wrong' reasons.
On Monday, police arrested a 31-year-old parent for allegedly threatening to kill Mohd Nasir on July 25 at 2.30pm. The parent has been released on police bail but is expected to be charged with criminal intimidation soon.
The parent has denied the accusation, saying he had not gone to the school on that particular date.
"It's rather outrageous that a parent has been arrested. Police have no grounds to detain parents. As I said, I cannot believe the authorities can keep making mistakes like these. It is like they are pushing people to be more and more upset," said Tian.
"Is there an invisible hand trying to embarrass Najib? Najib's 1Malaysia is already fizzled out, are his enemies now trying to focus on his replacement slogan Endless Possibilities. The speed at which it was exposed to the public that Endless Possibilities is borrowed from Israel and Mongolia can only come from Umno insiders with a wish to bury Najib."
Police roped into help headmaster intimidate parent?
He said the parent had lodged a report on July 30 against Mohd Nasir and the school for allegedly taking photographs of his 10-year-old daughter in school.
"This happened twice on July 29, when the headmaster had led a man to take photographs of the girl," The Malaysian Insider reported Gunasegaran as saying.
Last Friday, two policemen went to the parent's home around midnight and caused a "commotion". "They did not tell the parent what they came for but stayed for two hours," Gunasegaran said.
The next day Gunasegaran advised the "terrified" parent to lodge a report against the two cops.
Police then advised him to go to the Sungai Buloh police station. But when the parent arrived at the police station, the officers there told him they were arresting him.
They also put him in an identification line-up where he was picked out by two teachers from the school.
"I later bailed him and I was told that he will be charged with criminal intimidation on September 9," said Gunasegaran.
"This case seems to be staged and it is obvious the headmaster is just out for revenge. The parent is a whistleblower and this is what they do to scare him. We will sue all of them if this goes on."
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