Toilet canteen fiasco: A deliberate mischief - Ravinder Singh

Disgusting is a mild adjective, for want of a better word, to describe how the headmaster of the SK Seri Pristana Mohd Nasir Mohd Noor abused his authority to provide what he claims was an alternative place for children to have their meals in the toilet-cum-canteen while the canteen proper is "undergoing renovation".

But not one photo of the canteen under renovation has been shown so far, and neither did the reporters who went to the school see any renovations going on in the canteen. Without any photographic evidence of the renovations, it is just a shameless ruse to cover-up a heinous act against children in the Holy month of Ramadan, and I believe which goes against the teachings of Islam.

The way the deputy education minister P. Kamalanathan ran to control the damage or "diffuse the situation" and rescue the headmaster is also deplorable. He merely repeated what the headmaster told him, i.e. that the canteen has been under repair since March.

The minister's assistant, S. Yogendran had earlier stated that teachers had been assigned to take students to the toilet-cum-canteen in batches and all children, including the Malay children, had been eating there since March.

Let us do some calculations to confirm S. Yogendran's explanation. The school’s enrolment is said to be about 1,300 pupils. Divided into two sessions, each would have about 650 pupils. From the photo of the toilet-cum-canteen, it could accommodate only about 15 children at one time.

This means 650 students would have to be divided into 43 groups of 15 children each for all to have their meals. If each group was given only 10 minutes, that would require 430 minutes, or 7 hours to the nearest hour. A school session does not last 7 hours. From 7.30am to 1.00pm it is 5 hours and 30 minutes or 330 minutes.

At this rate, recess would have to start at 7.30am and run continuously till 1.00pm for the morning session, and from 1.00pm to 6.30pm for the afternoon session. Classes would have to be disrupted as all the 40 or so children in a class could not go out together. Worse still, each day, only about 500 could take a 10-minute canteen break while another 150 would have to go without any recess.

Remember, if children were allowed to eat outside the canteen proper, they would dirty the place, so they had to be confined to some proper place to have their meals without dirtying the corridors, etc. The only suitable place available was the restroom with attached baths and toilets. It could be considered better than the canteen as the canteen proper does not have attached baths and toilets.

Now, could Kamalanathan, Yogendran, Mohd Nasir Mohd Noor, or anybody else tell us why renovations have to be done during school days and during Ramadan?

The 7-week, end-of-year school holiday starts on 16 November, and that is not far off. Could anyone also explain the nature of renovations being carried out considering that this school building is only a few years old and very modern? How could the planners not have provided enough canteen space to accommodate about 400 children, as it is the norm to have two recess periods for each school session?

A photograph has appeared in the newspapers showing the headmaster and a few others, said to be teachers, breaking fast in the mini canteen with attached baths and toilets.

This only proves hypocrisy. A downright bluff in the holy month of Ramadan. How low can people go to deceive the world? Schools close at around 5.30pm during Ramadan.

Why were the headmaster and teachers breaking fast in this toilet-cum-canteen when they could have done so in the comfort of the teachers' air-conditioned meeting room or staff room? Were these under renovation also? The picture was provided by the chairman of the parent-teacher association (PTA) Hussein Mohd Ariff. He is an accomplice, for the PTA is said to have approved the use of this toilet-cum-canteen in the first place.

To sound convincing, the deputy minister said that the school's PTA committee had discussed and approved the use of the mini canteen with attached baths and toilets.

Who makes up the PTA committee? Fifty percent are teachers and another fifty percent parents with the HM acting as secretary and adviser.

By the way, is the PTA committee in this school multiracial / multicultural? Is there even one non-Malay on it? Would any teacher on the PTA committee dare to oppose any proposal from the HM?

So at the end of the day, it is the HM and PTA chairman who carry the day. It is recorded as the collective decision of the PTA committee and the endorsement then becomes a façade to hide behind in case of something going awry.

When one is caught with his pants down, one would try anything to cover his exposed parts. It is relevant to relate an incident that happened in a premier secondary school in Sungai Petani, i.e. SM Ibrahim, in the 1980's. The ban on Dr. M's book "The Malay Dilemma" had been lifted after the author became PM. Dr M's description of the non-Malays as "pendatang" was being freely used by racists at any opportunity. It was even used in Parliament.

One morning at a school assembly the principal of this school gave a "history" talk on the coming of non-Malays to Malaysia and had referred to them as "pendatang".

After the assembly, the dozen or so non-Malay teachers in the school went to see him over this. He denied ever saying "pendatang-pendatang". He said the word he used was "pedagang-pedagang". Were all the dozen or so teachers semi-deaf? Is the pronunciation of "pendatang" so close to that of "pedagang" that one could easily mistake one for the other? 

Kamalanathan and the whole education ministry can claim there was nothing racial about the incident. But we have often heard it said that the non-Malays should respect the Malays during Ramadhan by not eating in their presence. Those who say this claim that the sight of people eating makes those fasting tempted to eat and it affects the sanctity of the fasting.

In the context of this it can be safely assumed that the school did not want the Muslim children who are fasting to have sight of the non-Muslims eating. So, the best solution was to hide the non-Muslim students somewhere and there was no better place than the mini canteen with bath and toilet attached. Out of sight, out of mind.

This had to be done very subtly. So the "renovation" strategy was planned and implemented. Closing of school canteens during Ramadan is a common and widespread practice.

At least, Kamalanathan has clarified that the renovation was nothing but a changing of the door to the teachers' eating room in a corner of the canteen. Why do this on the day Ramadan starts?

This is not something so urgent. There are no valuables in the room that need to be secured. It could be done on a Saturday, just a day's work. And yet Kamalanathan does not see the mischief behind the "renovation" ruse to close the whole canteen which is untouched by the door-changing?

Then why speak forcefully in defense of the school? He said the incident had no racial colouring, but was due to concerns for hygiene and logistics problems? What hype is this? Please don't take us to be fools. 

If we take the racial element out, then the school administrator must be a mentally unsound person as no sane person would do such a thing. A school head is supposed to be like a father or mother to the pupils, and no mother or father would make his/her children eat in a washroom/toilet. The school head should then be medically boarded out for being of unsound mind.

As a Muslim, and in the holy month of Ramadan, did he follow the teachings of the Quran? Supposing his son or daughter were in a Chinese or Tamil school, would he thank the school for providing an alternative place for his child to sit at a table and eat when the school canteen proper was under "renovation", even if the alternative place was a similar mini canteen with attached bath and toilet, just like in his school?

Is it not stated somewhere in the Holy Book that one should not do to another what one does not want the other to do to him?  Or was he under pressure from the chairman of the PTA?

* Ravinder Singh reads The Malaysian Insider.