VOXPOP 'The reluctance to voluntarily initiate a full-scale investigation only confirms the suspicion of a cover-up.'

Report bribery bid, ministry urges Orang Asli parents

Swipenter The teacher who slapped the students is not even investigated and punished accordingly yet. What makes Deputy Education Minister Puad Zarkashi so sure that bribery charge would be taken seriously and investigated judiciously?

Nevertheless, I urge that the parents make a police report on the alleged bribery attempt. We must not let this incident go unpunished and unresolved, otherwise such bigoted teachers would continue to bully and coerce non-Muslim students to conform to their religious dogmas.

Boiling Mud: Why is the Education Ministry, like other government agencies, so passive that investigation and action in the present case can only be initiated if and after a complaint is made?

The reluctance to voluntarily initiate a full-scale investigation only confirms the suspicion of a cover-up.

I don't see this lack of initiative when it comes to persecuting human rights group Suaram and other NGOs and individuals who voice their concerns on matters that are detrimental to the progress of the country. Why?

RA 1: The Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) should be the one resolving the issue. Other parties should not get involved. Teachers are human with their own biases. So the teachers need to attend courses on handling students before their postings.

Normally such postings to remote areas are hardship postings, where teachers would prefer to leave as soon as possible. Most likely, the teacher has been posted there for too long and needs to be reposted somewhere else.

Anonymous #62211637: Wasn't the ministry supposed to have investigated the incident and taken action? If this was in Singapore, action would have been immediately taken and the person charged in court and justice meted out.

Why a simple issue like this takes so much dragging of the feet and the " lepak (relax)" attitude of the people in charge of looking after the well-being of our children when attending school?

Baiyuensheng: "In fact, it's like the teachers are admitting they are at fault," said Puad. What do you mean? Is it not their fault that they slapped the students?

NewMsia-GE13: Why must the parents' report to the ministry about the slapping when the ministry should have already started the investigation into the slapping? Bribe or not, they should start the investigation immediately.

Bamboo: The slapping incident happened weeks ago. Police report was made but nothing came out of it. I wish the Orang Asli parents will pursue this and not let the Umno-brainwashed teacher off scot-free.

Senior: Investigators here should start by verify what the deputy chairperson of the PTA said. It's not that difficult, but then the men in blue do not know how. They depend on confessions to solve matters.

Anonymous_3e06: Action will be taken against the teachers? What action? Transfer them to another school and let them continue to the same thing?

This has been going on for sometime now. It only shows the ministry has got the wrong people in the teaching profession. This was done to fulfill the quota system. You reap what you sow.

Brahman: The teachers should have said that they would hand over a RM300 donation from an "anonymous donor". Then it would be legal as the precedence have been set.

Can PAS hold the middle ground?

Hang Babeuf: "PAS is shrewdly maintaining the middle ground while Umno and its outsourced bullyboys doggedly spout right-wing bile in the hopes of fear-mongering their way back to the middle ground. And therein lies the problem. Umno has no concept of what the middle ground is," said S Thayaparan.

Absolutely correct, spot on!

Paul Warren: I don't care if former Selangor PAS commissioner Hasan Ali is resurrected in PAS and he becomes the prime minister.

But just make no changes to the status quo on stuff like gambling, alcohol consumption, entertainment joints and everything else that non-Muslims have taken for granted on the grounds that these are against Islam.

It does not matter that I do not go to these places or consume these things. If I don't go, it's because it is my choice. I don't need PAS to decide these for me.

Ranjit Singh: What is the crux of the opinion? Can you let your religion be less of a theory but what is humane amongst us in a secular Malaysia without the typical political melodrama.

It is not religious based battle but rather what should be humane in a secular Malaysia. Who decides? You or the make-shift politicians?

Onyourtoes: There is still one hope - the situation in Malaysia and the living conditions of Malaysians in general and Malays in particular must be made so bad and untenable that they will eventually decide to elect political parties and leaders who can give them a better life than based on race and religion.

Whatever way we look at it, race and religion are just fear and indoctrination; it has nothing to do with development, better education, higher income and better living conditions for the people.

I am optimistic someday Malaysians will wake up and cast all political parties based on race and religion into basket of history.

The non-Malays and non-Muslims should never box themselves into believing that they are lesser beings in this country and they can't become the prime minister or finance or defence minister.

This institutionalised baloney must stop. Barack Obama must happen here - not to take advantage of others, but to provide a better future for all Malaysians.

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