‘Sack the headmaster’
Calls to suspend and sack the headmaster, who made non-Muslim students eat at the school’s changing room, is growing.
(FMT) – The MIC, echoing the general sentiment, wants the headmaster of Sekolah Kebangsaan Seri Pristina in Sungai Buloh suspended immediately and sacked from government service.
Party vice-president and Deputy Youth and Sports Minister M Saravanan said the Education Ministry should suspend the headmaster with immediate effect while he awaited a sacking order.
“We know it is not easy to sack a civil servant. But the offence committed is unforgivable. He should not be allowed into the school again. He should be sacked for being so insensitive.
“This is just one reported case. We really hope there are not many little Napoleon headmasters like this running our schools. It is people like this who bring a bad name to civil servants. When these people do something, the government is blamed.
“This needs to be a lesson for all civil servants. Transferring the headmaster is not an option. He should be sacked and the ministry must be open and transparent in taking action against the headmaster,” he told FMT.
Yesterday, it was reported that the headmaster of SK Seri Pristina has ordered non-Muslim students to have their food at the school changing room due to the fasting month. The changing room was next to the school toilet.
Reports also reveal that the students were made to eat their meals there because the school canteen was undergoing renovation.
However, photographs of the school and its canteen splashed in newspapers today showed no renovation work being carried out.
Saravanan also suggested that all civil servants, especially those in decision-making positions, be made to undergo a race relations course so that they would not be insensitive to non-Muslims in their course of work.
“This happens every now and then. We must do something to stop this trend. Why is it happening? I am just making a suggestion. We want civil servants in authority to make decisions to understand the sensitivity of other races in the country,” he added.
Callous disregard
Similar call for action was also made by MCA deputy president Liow Tiong Lai.
“It’s disgusting. Such a thing should not have happened,” he said.
The former health minister also criticised errant school administrators for practising discrimination among students.
“Why do we need to look at things in a racial view when we want to implement something?” asked Liow.
Meanwhile, MIC treasurer-general senator Jaspal Singh said the shocking sight of non-Muslim children being made to eat in a public changing room has outraged many Malaysians.
“The core issue is callous disregard and disrespect for the beliefs and practices of those different from oneself, in short, bigotry. On the one hand we preach unity and mutual respect, on the other an individual in a responsible position, a headmaster, abuses the very children he is supposed to nurture and protect,” he said in a statement.
“It is clear that someone so callous and uncaring of his charges as the headmaster of SK Pristina cannot be allowed to continue in his current position.
“In fact, he should not be allowed anywhere near impressionable children. I call upon the Education Ministry to mete out the harshest punishment on this individual. Suspend him immediately,” he said.
