Targeting Tamil school teachers in a possible racial hunt has caused anger amongst the community.
Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia has today written a letter to the attorney-general urging a full and thorough investigation into the UPSR leak saga which has shocked the nation and caused much anxiety amongst parents and students who are forced to repeat their examinations.
The association is given to understand that the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) has completed its investigation and has sent its investigation papers to the attorney-general for his further action.
The public deserves to know the truth of how such documents classified under the Official Secrets Act could come to be available to the public even before the examinations. The public is aware that in most similar previous cases “small fries” were arrested and charged and the matter would be closed with a criminal charge. The public demands more accountability and truth from the investigations and are watching the police and Education Ministry closely.
For the following reasons above, the association has written to the attorney-general as the highest legal officer to instruct the police chief to conduct a thorough investigation and get to the bottom of the truth in the leak saga.
1) The affected exam papers allegedly leaked were Sekolah Kebangsaan papers. However, there appears to be a racial witchhunt to target Tamil school teachers when the Tamil school exam papers differ drastically from the Sekolah Kebangsaan examinations.
2) The manner in which the teachers were hauled up to court to obtain remand was most unethical. They are in a noble profession and deserve to be treated with dignity. They could have been called to the police station for their statements to be recorded just like the top officers from the Examination Syndicate. The law was clearly not applied equally as per Article 8 of the federal constitution.
3) Once again though it has come to our understanding that three teachers from Sekolah Kebangsaan were arrested and remanded. However, the remand of those Malay teachers was never aired in any media. The Indian teachers seemed to be paraded and those images repeated almost daily (for a few days) in the mainstream and online media, thus giving rise to a stereotype that the Indian teachers were not trustworthy.
This clearly gives the perception that the government is embarking on a racist agenda and has caused much anger amongst the Indian Malaysian community.
4) The top officers who were responsible in the Examinations syndicate were never arrested, other than probably being called for their statements to be recorded. The Science paper was leaked one day before the examinations. Thus it does not make sense that teachers who are at the bottom line in the chain of people who would be in possession of those papers were arrested instead of top officers.
5) Since Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia raised the issue of probable innocent Tamil school teachers being targeted and likely racial witchhunt on Sept 20, the Education Ministry made a sudden announcement that the Tamil and Maths exams papers were also leaked within 24 hours and in particular on a Sunday, which is a non-working day.
This further raises the suspicion that the arrest of such large number of Tamil school teachers were being justified by the announcement of the said further leak 11 days after the exams.
6) The arrest of those Tamil school teachers does not make sense especially 11 days before the alleged leak was discovered. Are the police and ministry engaging on a policy of “arrests first investigate later”?
P WAYTHAMOORTHY is chairperson, Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia.