PETALING JAYA, July 30 — The individuals who posted images of students eating in a bathroom at SRK Sri Pristana should be investigated for sedition, said Selangor Umno chief Datuk Seri Noh Omar today following a claimed death threat against the school’s headmaster.
On Thursday, Mohd Nasir Mohd Noor, 57, said he lodged a police report after receiving a threat on his life over the controversy. He also complained of coming under abuse since the issue erupted on the Internet.
During a visit to the school today, Noh suggested that authorities investigate Mohd Nasir’s report using the colonial era law that the Najib administration plans to repeal.
“I want the police to investigate the headmaster’s report and action taken under the Sedition Act,” the Tanjung Karang MP was reported as saying by news portal The Malaysian Insider.
Last Tuesday, a mother by the name of Guneswari Kelly posted on social network Facebook photographs that appeared to show several non-Muslim children and even adults at a school named as SRK Sri Pristana in Sungai Buloh taking their recess in the toilet even as the school canteen went unoccupied.
According to her, the children were directed not to use the canteen — shown cordoned off in the pictures — as they would “dirty” the area. Instead, they were told to go to the school’s changing rooms and lavatories, and ordered to stay there for the duration of their recess.
A day after a firestorm erupted on social media sites, Deputy Education Minister P. Kamalanathan declared the issue closed following an apology from the school head.
Following the controversy, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also education minister, confirmed on his Twitter page that the incident would be investigated and punishment meted to those responsible.
Today, Noh also urged that no punishment be meted out to Mohd Nasir, whom he said had placed the children in the bathroom as there was insufficient space in the canteen.
The former minister also criticised the parent who sparked off the entire row for not checking with Mohd Nasir over the reason the students were placed in the bathroom.
“The parents of the child had just enrolled the child in this school for a week and posted the pictures. Surely, she would not have known about the school’s decision to use the shower room as an extension to the canteen in March,” Noh added in the report.
Last week, Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia had also published a report saying the police will probe those who distributed the photos in question for sedition.
But Selangor acting police chief Datuk A. Thaiveegan, whom the newspaper quoted as the officer who made the warning, later refuted the newspaper’s report.
