Mahdzir just not fit to be a minister

From wearing expensive shoes and walking on the school tables during a flash flood, now Education Minister Mahdzir Khalid appears to be blatantly undemocratic.

He acts as though he is oblivious that in Selangor and Penang, he belongs to the opposition party himself. And in the state of Kedah where he comes from, Barisan Nasional was also the opposition between 2008 and 2013.

Whether state or federal, Barisan Nasional can and will become the opposition. Therefore, in politics, the only thing that is constant is change. Mahdzir may be the education minister now, but tomorrow, he can be dropped either by his own party or when Pakatan Harapan takes over Putrajaya.

At a time when the political situation in the country is very fluid, for him to say such a blatantly undemocratic thing is uncalled for. The parliament recognises both the ruling party and the opposition.

Since when can a minister issue such a directive to ask teachers or even headmasters holding official positions in the opposition to resign? What power does a minister have? This has to be curtailed by parliament, too.

I, therefore, urge the Parliamentary Speaker Pandikar Amin to censure the minister for his disrespect to the democratic system in this country. His unguided enthusiasm in protecting his party is detrimental to the democracy of this country.

In the first place, as parents, we abhor the penetration of politics into the school education system. Mahdzir himself was a school headmaster, and if he had been more focused on his role as a headmaster, he would have done a better job today.

If he had allowed a school in Putrajaya to bring in Umno flags, there is no reason to stop any state exco to visit schools, yet we hear of the problems faced even by the Selangor state exco Ean Yong Hian Wah when he was invited by a primary school recently.

I am sure in my son’s school, when last year, the Selangor state exco Elizabeth Wong (photo) visited the school’s exhibition, there were no major issues. The headmistress had given the consent, but the invitation had to be issued by the chairman of Parent-Teacher Association (PIBG). Why all the hassles? This is, after all, a democratic nation, Malaysia.

However, I sincerely wonder if he even knows what is happening in schools these days, especially with bully cases. This is a perennial problem in even primary schools yet his ministry has not been effective in solving a number of these issues.

Tackle education issues first

Mahdzir’s task as a minister should be to tackle all the major issues that are infecting government schools now.

For example, the issue of school workbook activities where headmasters want the children to buy lots of workbooks. This has resulted in heavy bag loads.

Why should a Standard Five child have to accumulate some 29 workbooks, both which the parents were told to buy and those already given by the ministry? My son, who was supposed to be in Lower Primary (Tahap 1), had altogether 21 workbooks and all sorts of books!

While parents appreciate the final decision made near the end of last year, this directive about workbooks was already issued back in 2000 and reissued in 2014. Why did it take the minister and his deputy Chong Sin Woon (photo) until the end of the year before making the announcement?

This left a lot of publishers and even parents stranded, as some schools had already issued the booklist and even collected the money for 2018 purchases.

Secondly, bully cases. If Mahdzir is not aware of the bully cases, he should resign as minister. Last year, he came out with a directive saying that the cases can be handled at the state education level.

However, Mahdzir should be aware by now as I have been sending him messages and scores of letters about a few particular bully cases in my children’s school. These cases have been brought to the attention of the state education department. We have also met with all three key persons at the state education department, but some of the issues are still pending.

Let me quote. The headmistress of the school had video footage of what is believed to be a coerced confession of a Standard Two boy who was a victim of a bully case.

Instead of dealing with the bully, there was an attempt to expel the victim, whose mother had complained about the 29 workbooks that she realised she had been asked by the school to purchase throughout last year.

Although this case was again brought to the attention of the deputy director (and therefore his immediate superior, the state education director), there was no solution. After pursuing the matter for a few months, who would not turn to the opposition to have this matter whipped up in the parliament?

What again shocked many of us parents on Friday morning last week was when a parent, unknown to many of us, had written a series of messages to let us know that she had given a lot of time for the school to handle a bully case involving his son as a victim and another boy in the same class.

The bully had apparently been transferred from another class to this class where the victim is. For the past two years, the child has been suffering until the mother broke the silence when the doctor treating his son’s case told her that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

We were told that lately the boy was taken to a dark corner of the school and physically beaten by the bully. There is a long story to this, but I can say there are a lot of attempts to cover up the case.

I wonder if it has even to do with the fact that the bully is the son of a key person in the PIBG. This is something we will have to ask during the coming and very timely annual general meeting this Saturday.

If Mahdzir cares to look at the education issues squarely, I am sure he will learn a lot from parent lobby groups such as Jiazhong (for Chinese schools) and Parent Action Group for Education (Page) instead of even labelling these groups as pro-opposition, or assuming that he has the power to ask teachers who hold positions in opposition parties to resign.

Although the minister's office has since claimed that the minister had been quoted out of context, in the first place, he should not even have made any such statements or giving so-called 'fatherly' advice when it would surely backfire on his position. The government of the day is not permanent, but the administration and the civil servants will remain.

If anything, we as parents, especially those in Mahdzir’s own constituency should ensure that Mahdzir resigns first, or is voted out in the coming general election. This is, by the way, the wrath of parents who have dealt with the Ministry of Education under Mahdzir’s leadership.

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STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.- Mkini