By Ravinder Singh
What pathetic double standards displayed by Education Minister Mahdzir Khalid in his warning to all teachers not to participate in the Bersih 5 rally this Saturday.
Is he sure there are no teachers who may be donning red shirts on the same day, so much so that he does not have to warn teachers not to participate in the Red Shirts counter rally as well?
Or is he encouraging the teachers that if they feel like going for a street walk on Saturday, they should be in red shirts and not in yellow shirts?
By the way, under what provision of Chapter D of the General Orders or the Education Act are teachers prohibited from participating in such activities outside of their working hours? The minister should tell the public this.
If teachers are not specifically banned from participating in such activity outside of their working hours, and if the minister is not empowered to give such orders, then he is acting beyond his duties and that amounts to abuse of power or authority.
Teachers who commit real crimes, such as molestation of their students are not suspended from duties but only given desk duties in the District Education Office, whereas those who participate in the Bersih rally will be suspended.
And by that token, will those who attend the Red Shirts counter rally get promotions?
This is not the first time teachers have been warned about the side on which they should be.
In June 2013, it was reported that the Johor education department had established a team to monitor the social media activities of the state’s teachers and headmasters.
Are teachers the private property of the government of the day, to be beholden to the politicians in power, and to have no rights of their own to think and choose what they feel is right?
So teachers have been reduced to being the “pak turuts” (yes men) of the government through the education ministry. No wonder our education system is so broken.
Yet, the very same teachers are tasked with developing children’s higher order thinking skills (HOTS), to teach religious and moral values about rights and wrongs.
Politicians should stop intimidating teachers and all other civil servants. They are not being paid with your money, but with the rakyat’s money.
Ravinder Singh is an FMT reader.
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