'Insane, irresponsible to fault parents over shower canteen'

MIC Youth secretary C Sivarraajh urges Umno leaders and NGOs who defended the headmaster to stop twisting the issue for political gains. 

The calls to take action against the whistleblower in the SK Sri Pristana issue was "insane and irresponsible", said MIC Youth today.

Its secretary C Sivarraajh urged Umno leaders and NGOs who defended the headmaster to stop twisting the issue for political gains. 

He added that it was "puzzling and disappointing" that the Sedition Act could be used to threaten parents, who merely acted for the well-being of their children.

"There were call for parents to be charged for pin-pointing the wrong doing of the school headmaster. I felt this is totally insane and irresponsible," he said in a press statement. 

"I would stress here that the SK PRistina issue is not a racial issue for anyone to emerge as a hero or to gain unnecessary support," he added.

Sivarraajh urged the police to investigate the school's headmaster and take stern action if there was any attempt to falsify the facts.

He said he personally did not witness any canteen renovation work during his visit to the school with Deputy Education Minister P Kamalanathan. 

He also cited a discrepancy in reports of when the students started using the shower room as a canteen - was it March or only during Ramadan?

The divisive issue came to light after Facebook photos were posted by a parent who claimed that non-Muslim students were being made to eat in the shower room during recess, in view of the fasting month. 

The school, however, claimed that the shower room has been used as a makeshift canteen since March, due to overcrowding in the canteen, which was under renovation. 
 
"I believe its high time for all of us to view any issue based on facts and find solution for it rather than politicise it for personal agenda," said  Sivarraajh.

MIC's view echoed another BN component party, MCA. 

Speaking to Malaysiakini on Wednesday, MCA president Chua Soi Lek called Selangor Umno liasion committee chairperson Noh Omar  "crazy" for suggesting that Sri Pristina's whistleblower be charged under the Sedition Act.