Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Malaysia Education Ministry

It is now clear to me that certain manipulative power brokers has actively attempt to make all schools Barisan Nasional's only territory as evident by the response of the Education Ministry’s director-general Datuk Alimuddin Mohd Dom when he “refused to elaborate when asked if the Education directors had been instructed not to approve requests for visits by politicians from Opposition parties” (The Star article or page 3 of The Star 30/3/2008).

If the Education directors had been indeed instructed not to approve requests for visits by politicians from Opposition parties, this blatant move disregards the choice of the people and its only purpose is to make school functions reserved only for the scions of Tun Hussien Onn and his pawns within the Education Ministry. I was denied at least once of such visit by the school principal apparently under instruction (The Star article).

I had thought that being a supposedly learned educationist, the Director of Education will be able to sort out the mess by putting the wrong right. Much to my disappointment, he further reiterated that only "the Education Minister, the deputy minister, the director-general, and state level Education Department directors and their representatives" are allowed to be invited to school events. A little additional caveat allows the State Director to "approve" other persons to such invites, obviously they shall only come from Barisan Nasional.

I abhor such selective manipulation of the school hallowed grounds for political mileage by the Barisan Nasional. I also completely reject those government servants within the Education Ministry who disallow visits by politicians from Opposition parties. If any school authority allows such undemocratic and lopsided move to be carried out, shame on you being teachers of our children.

I demand a clear answer from the Education Minister on whether Education directors had been instructed not to approve requests for visits by politicians from Opposition parties. If the Education Minister refuses to answer and instead is adamant to proceed with this “hidden” measure, I call on all parents to inform us at DAP if they come to know of any visits to the schools by any Barisan Nasional politician, even if it is Badawi, Najib, Ong Kah Chuan or even some lower ranks like MIC’s Saravanan. And I will seek the assistance of DAP members, friends from the other Opposition parties, NGOs and even Royal Malaysian Police force to shut them out of the school grounds. Since the parents didn't want Barisan Nasional in 6 states (including Wilayah Persekutuan), I am sure they even less want them in the schools influencing their much loved children.



Lim Lip Eng
DAP MP for Segambut
31/3/2008

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

lim
since they have politicise the schools which i am not surprise given the education minsiter is prone to his keris waving ways to eliminate any opposition, what are you to do? can you come out with some novel solutions to depoliticsed the schools?

Johnny Ong said...

agreed with your blog entry which i did blog abt it too

http://johnny-ong.blogspot.com/2008/03/opposition-mps-cannot-officiate.html

Anonymous said...

This is not a new directive. They did the same thing in Terengganu when the state was under Pas.

Yap said...

YB Lim

Don't you think this is a good move made by those clowns and advantage to Pakatan Rakyat. The parents of the schools have relatives all over Malaysia and this doing of the ministry will spread to to them especially to JB. Come the next GE Kerismuddin would fall.
Believe me, the parents in Penang, KL are now speaking to their relatives in JB and Malacca.
The more silly policies they make to restrict the movement of Pakatan Rakyat are an advantage.

5xmom.com said...

YB Lim
I am a blogger with four kids and I had expressed my disgust with these double standards and also the involvement of the school children in their political dominance. Here are my post, one of which I sent to JeffOoi's attention. Although it is not a necessity for the CM or VIPs to be involved in school functions, but as children, they enjoy the motivation of having a figure like that. Moreover, does this mean schools in states like Penang (where I am from) cannot approach the State Government for help in fundings etc?


Why is the Higher Education Minister allowed in PTA?

Penang NUTP's directive that teachers no longer need to attend functions.

I hope YAB and all your Pakatan Rakyat comrades will made it known to the Federal Government that it is really low of them to drag in schools children in their show of power. As parents, I can see this as a very bad example given to our children. Thank you.

Navi said...

Just two days before the General Elections, I recieved a letter from my son's school requesting my son's attendance at Stadium Melawati, Shah Alam as The Deputy Prime Minister was meeting smallholders; under the guise of extra curricular activity. What has a standard four pupil to do in a function such as that. Naturally I refused to allow my son to waste his time there.
This shows the Governments double talk now that the Coalition is in power in the 5 states.
One thing parents can do in cases where BN representatives turn up at schools is to refuse permission for the pupil to be at school on that day.
Parents can also insist that the PIBG do not play politics in school and be an influence on the decisions of the school authorities.

Anonymous said...

Who knows where to download XRumer 5.0 Palladium?
Help, please. All recommend this program to effectively advertise on the Internet, this is the best program!