Tenang blow-up: A sad reflection on our education authorities

When the husband of PAS’s Tenang candidate Normala Sudirman received his transfer papers to report to a school in Johor Baru, about 200 km away at short notice, he was informed by the headmaster, that the transfer was effected because he had an ‘uncontrollable wife’.

Normala’s husband, Makrof Abd Mutalib said, “The headmaster said it was because I can't control my wife, referring to her political participation in PAS.”

Makrof has been teaching in a school in Tenang for the past 13 years whilst Normala, who was a teacher in nearby Segamat, resigned when she became a full-time party worker.

Although the transfer notice was a clear indication that the Johore Education Department discriminates against teachers whose family members support the opposition, it is the comments of the headmaster which are shocking.

The headmaster’s remarks about not being able to “control your wife” are offensive to all women.

Is the headmaster a male chauvinist who believes that wives must be ‘controlled’?

Or does this headmaster suffer from an inferiority complex and does not realise that a relationship between the sexes should be based on respect?

The accepted belief is that men who exhibit such chauvinistic and arrogant tendencies rarely have wives who are shrinking violets. So perhaps this headmaster’s wife wears the trousers at home and he can only feel ‘powerful’ at work by goading other men to ‘control their wives’.

Nevertheless, in other more civilised countries, there would have been protests outside this headmaster’s school for his derogatory remarks against women.

If the Johore Education Department is led by an arrogant director, Markom Giran, who cares little about telling the truth and who does not seem to have any principles, then it is not surprising that head teachers in Johore have been free with their racist remarks about non-Malay students in the past.

Now, it appears, they are equally free with their sexist comments.

There does not appear to be a code of conduct which the Johore staff have to adhere to. But could the racist and sexist tendencies also be due to the poor example set by the director?

The heads of schools know they can say whatever they like because they will get away with it. They also know that even if any complaint was lodged with the Minister of Education, Muhyiddin Yassin, his only reaction will be to say that he is ‘powerless’ to act and that he cannot censure staff of a certain pay grade.

Such is the bog-standard mentality of those who run our Education Department in Johore and our Ministry of Education in Malaysia.