Something happened this
week which caused a bit of a furore in the local press. A parent
revealed on Facebook that her child and other students were being
made to eat in the school's makeshift canteen which was in the shower room.
This was bad enough.
What made people upset
was that it was implied the canteen had been closed during the
fasting month and that the non-muslim students being made to eat in
the makeshift canteen were being discriminated.
Which quite
understandably led to the public outrage on Facebook and calls for
the principal to be suspended. As usual the discussion of race and
religion led to a flurry of constructive dialogue between people on
Facebook.
Not exactly..this was an
internet trolls wet dream come true. It's nice that IRL people seem
to get along just fine. If life was based on internet comments it'd
be like living through The Purge everyday (don't watch that movie,
it's rubbish).
It didn't help matters
when the principal released a photo of himself and several other
people breaking fast and eating in the shower room. I guess he was
trying to show the parents that it wasn't a big deal but the parents
weren't having it.
A few days have now
passed and the dust has settled and it appears to be just a case of
bad judgement on the part of the Principal. Because of the uproar the
Deputy Education Minister himself made a visit to the school and told
reporters that the issue was not related to race or religion.
According to him “The
school initiated the makeshift canteen because of overcrowding” and
said that the location chosen was “not ideal”. Which is a bit of
an understatement. The canteen is now open again but it's still not
over as parents and NGO's are still asking for action to be taken
against the principal.
Unfortunately this isn't
the first case of a principal being controversial. A few years ago a
principal had decided that it would be appropriate to segregate the
male and female students in his co-ed school. And then there was the
case of a principal who was a bit of a..well..racist.
I think that it's
appropriate that we hold principals accountable for their decisions
though I personally don't think in this case he was being sinister in
his actions. It would have been better if he had discussed the
relocation of the canteen with the parents first. And later when the
parents had complained he should have apologised for the mistake and
taken steps to remedy the situation but that's just me.
Unfortunately, we as
Malaysians still have a long way to go when it comes to the matter of
race and religious issues. Malaysia is still a work in progress and
though dark clouds may occasionally swirl over my head I'm an
optimist about the future and the direction we're heading as
Malaysians. We may not be "fucking perfect" but at least we're"fucking okay.."
Links:
P.S. On a totally
unrelated note this week I watched LeFabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain for the first time (with
subtitles of course; my French is well..non-existent) and it was the
perfect movie. After watching Amélie
I couldn't help smiling. I did watch A Good Day To
Die Hard later which ruined my day.
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