I read with interest the announcement by the Chief Secretary to the Government, Mohd Sidek Hassan that graduate teachers can take part in active politics. Does this mean that schools will become a political battleground to indoctrinate students with their political beliefs?

It has been reported that some schools in Subang Jaya and Teratai constituencies have disallowed their wakil rakyat from even attending any functions in their schools.

When this happens, the children are taught nothing about the true meaning of democracy, which means that the people are entitled to choose their leaders who can represent them in their best interests.

The childish and narrow-mindedness of such schools would only teach children the wrong values of a dictatorship where you are only given what you received, which in turn will indoctrinate the children to have the same values when they grow up as adults.

Our future generation might even learn that partisan politics is more important than common enemies like corruption and abuse of power.

It is the responsibility of every wakil rakyat to look into the welfare of their constituents which should include schools and other institutions of learning. It is thus absurd to discriminate against wakil rakyat who have a right to attend any functions in their area.

If this is an order from the Education Ministry with a circular list on who can be invited, then it would not make any difference to the recent announcement by Mohd Sidek Hassan. It will just be a gimmick to make it seem that the government is finally being liberal, when in fact the status quo remains.

If our government talks about ‘1Malaysia’, why is there a double standard when a wakil rakyat is not even allowed to take part in school functions in their own constituency?