Seri Pristana headmaster’s daughter pleads for dad to be given a chance

Give my father a chance to clear his name.

That was the plea from Farah Asyikin to netizens who have been attacking her father Mohd Nasir Mohd Noor over the case of students being ordered to eat their meals in a shower room at the SK Seri Pristana in Sungai Buloh.

Mohd Nasir is the school’s headmaster and since pictures of the students having their recess meals in the school’s changing room on Facebook went viral, he has had no respite from netizens' attack on his decision.

Farah Asyikin said as result of the furore generated by the Facebook posting her father is being investigated by the police and the Education Ministry.

She pleaded to the public to stop spreading rumours about her father.

“I scrolled through my Facebook wall and I just couldn’t bear all the fitnah (slander) that has been going on. I’m crying inside. Very loud. People are talking as if they know everything,” Farah Asyikin said in a Facebook post yesterday.

According to Farah, the public’s anger towards her father had boiled over to the point of posting “horrendous comments and threatening messages” on Mohd Nasir’s Facebook page.

Concerned and affected, the family has deactivated his account.

“My dad is the most motivated headmaster I’ve ever met and, ‘yes’, you may think I say this out of bias as a daughter but hey, aren’t your dads the best dads in the whole world to you?

“He comes back every day from work boasting about his school’s potential, about how the kids have grown better in both academics and co-curriculum,” she wrote.

As of yesterday evening, her post has been shared over 2,200 times.

Deputy Education Minister P. Kamalanathan yesterday at least appeared to clear Mohd Nasir while declaring the incident at the school was "not about religion or race".

The deputy minister added that the headmaster had good intentions but chose a poor location.

"He has apologised. I too apologise. It won't happen again," Kamalanathan said after visiting the school and declaring the issue closed.

However, politicians, non-governmental organisations and even parents expressed outrage saying the matter cannot be put to rest simply with a visit to the school and an apology.

Some had suggested that disciplinary action be taken by the Education Miinstry on Mohd Nasir over his action.