Urgent motion to censure third racist teacher

Source: MalaysiaKini

Parliament today received an emergency motion to censure an invigilator who had uttered racial slurs while monitoring a Sijil Pelajaran Malaysian examination at a school in Lukut, Negri Sembilan.

Opposition MP Er Teck Hwa (DAP-Bakri, below) filed the motion under Standing Order 18(1) saying that the secondary school teacher from Port Dickson was invigilating the exams on Nov 24 when a group of students turned up at the exam hall late.

According to Er, the invigilator had ticked off the students telling the Chinese students to “return to China” and the Indians to “go back to India” if they did not understand the instructions.

This is the third such incident reported since August.

In the first in Kulai Jaya, Johor, Siti Aishah Mansor the principal of SMK Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra made similarly racist remarks against her Chinese and Indian students during a school function.

Shortly after this, another principal Ungku Aznan Ungku Ismail, of SMK Bukit Selambau (SMKBS), Sungai Petani, had made racist remarks during morning assembly after being angered by the sight of Chinese students having breakfast at the school canteen during fasting period.

After much controversy and alleged delays from the authorities, the Public Service Department (PSD tasked to probe both cases had finally taken some action against the two principals.

Pattern of racism

Not long after, another civil servant National Civics Bureau (BTN) deputy director Hamim Husin (below) was suspended for referring to the Chinese as “si sepet” (slit-eyed) and to Indians as “si kaki botol” (alcoholics) when speaking of Umno's need to co-opt other races for purposes of elections.

And earlier this month, another related incident took place in a Kuching school where an administrator had caned a 10-year-old non-Muslim boy 10 times for bringing non-halal food to school, and had allegedly warned him, “Don't blow up this matter as it is a very sensitive issue among Muslims.”

Er who submitted the motion to the Dewan Rakyat's speaker's office this morning said that these cases were no longer a “remote issue”.

“Their (civil servants') statements are the same, ultimately demanding that Chinese and Indians go back to the country of their origins. There were also derogatory statements referring to the Chinese as 'prostitutes' and Indians as 'beggars',” said Er.

He urged for more drastic and stringent measures to be taken to avoid recurrence of such incidents.