Teachers and politics
By Thomas Lee Seng Hock, MySinchew
Within the school classroom situation, a politically partisan teacher may manipulate the young innocent children into believing that his rival political parties are demonic and that the children should tell their parents about it. This is especially true in the rural areas and the urban squatter areas where many parents are illiterate and take the words of the “guru” as gospel truth.
Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan has announced that graduate teachers on grades DG41 to DG48 are allowed to play an active part in politics, effective from 1 August 2010.
Sidek, in explaining the new policy, pointed out that in the early days, teachers had played an important role as community leaders in the local political scenario, and it is time that they be given the opportunity to be involved in politics again.
Sidek said the federal government has obtained the consent of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to amend Regulation 21 of the Public Officers (Conduct and Discipline) Regulations to facilitate the implementation of the new policy.
The new policy has several far-reaching implications for the education of our children which the federal government should seriously study and evaluate before adopting and implementing it.
In the first place, allowing teachers to join political parties, which is what the new policy is all about, will render them subsevient and obsequious to their parties, meaning that their neutrality and impartiality in teaching is suspect. There will certainly be the tendency, or even deliberate attempts, to indoctrinate the students under their charge.
Within the school classroom situation, a politically partisan teacher may manipulate the young innocent children into believing that his rival political parties are demonic and that the children should tell their parents about it. This is especially true in the rural areas and the urban squatter areas where many parents are illiterate and take the words of the “guru” as gospel truth.
The classroom is a powerful venue for munipulating, conditioning, and indoctrinating young minds, and a charming charismatic articulate teacher can easily mould and shape the innocent children to follow his way.
Secondly, those teachers who hold important and powerful positions in the political parties, especially those connected to the ruling coalition, may use their political clout to bully the school heads and other teachers.
Such a possibility should not be dismissed, as it well-known even in the private sector that there are employers who would flex their muscles to force their employees to support the political parties of the employers’ choice. Many years ago, I was at a briefing of one big estate when I heard the company boss telling his illiterate workers that if a certain political party loses an election, they stand to lose their bonus, or even jobs.
