Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has come under fire over his warning that teachers and students who participated in the rally organised by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) would be expelled.

Yesterday, English daily Star quoted the minister as saying that teachers who take part in the illegal rally would be "punished severely".

However, prominent Chinese educationist and human rights activist Kua Kia Soong disagreed with this approach.

"Hishammuddin had gone way beyond his understanding of what education is when he made that statement," said Kua, who is also the principal New Era College.

"Teachers have as much rights as any other citizen of a democratic country to exercise his or her constitutional rights to politically express themselves via public assembly," he added when contacted today.

Kua also reasoned that just because the police did not grant a permit for the Hindraf rally, it does not mean that the rally was unlawful.

Every citizen, he said, including those in the teaching profession has "been granted intrinsic political rights under the Federal Constitution to peacefully assemble to express any grievances. The constitution supercedes what the police thought of the rally."

Yesterday's rally, which drew about 30,000 people, was to support a US$4-trillion class-action suit filed against the British government for bringing the Indians here as indentured labourers and exploiting them for 150 years.

Warning is enough

National Union of Teaching Profession (NUTP) secretary-general Lo Whim Pheng also felt that sacking would be too harsh.

She said teachers who were involved should be first subjected to proper investigation before action is taken against them.

"They should only be given a disciplinary warning but not the boot. They are teachers and by that, also government servants and we as government servants must abide by the law," she told Malaysiakini .

However, Lo stressed that teachers must abide by laws which are deemed just and fair and not submit blindly to laws viewed as "unfair".

She also felt that teachers should be given certain rights like the right to assemble and politically express themselves.

Despite the mass arrests made following the rally, no news of teachers being sacked have surfaced.